Friday Night Game Report - Airship Pirates Sessions 1 and 2
As promised, here's the journal entry that I've been sort of avoiding writing most of the day. I'm not sure why I've seemingly avoided writing this entry, but that's another matter. Anyway, on to the stuff... This post may be somewhat long, but even if it's not, I've put it behind a cut so that folks who don't want to read any detailed rpg posts don't have to.
Friday night, the gaming group met and I started the Airship Pirates rpg campaign with the gaming group. For those who don't know, Airship Pirates is a post-apocalyptic steampunk roleplaying game whose backdrop is the dark, Neovictorian world created by the band Abney Park (led by Captain Robert Brown) in their songs over the past few albums.
While the first meet-up to do the Airship Pirates game was technically dealt with in this journal entry, the players did not completely finish their characters up for the game. So that was the first step in terms of getting ready to run the game this night.
In any event, the player characters that have been created by the players are an intriguing mix of characters, to say the least. Kathy Bauer is playing Lady Emily Harrington-Boothe, an Upper Class Neovictorian lady with a knowledge of swordsmanship who fled her old life as she had no desire to marry the man picked out by her family. Nick Roberts is playing Neobedouin Peter Bear Redwood, an outrider who returned from a scouting mission to find his entire tribe had been wiped out by what appeared to be a Neovictorian attack! Tom Robinson is playing Andrew Hartwell, a Servant class Neovictorian who became an Air Marine, but jumped ship when he found out that life in the Imperial Air Navy was all a lie. Joanne Clarke is playing Jeanette Storm, a Skyfolk trader, who has realised that she wants more adventure than just doing her job and being responsible to the skyloft officials and making sure the helium supply is adequate. Angela Marsh is playing Haley Deuce, a Neovictorian Automaton Doll, who witnessed something one night in the brothel where she worked, and has been on the run ever since. David Matchuk, the newest player to the Friday group, is playing Arthur Quentin-Smythe, a Dilettante who became bored with the (as he saw them) "games" of the Neovictorian Upper Class, and wanted more out of life. Stealing away from the city on one of the barges, he's definitely found what he's looking for - and more! Last but not least, my goddaughter Ellie is playing Calliandra Shade, a sort of street type from Isla Aether who finds herself a trouble magnet, and has now hooked up with the player characters.
Once the player characters were completed to the group's satisfaction, they chose their Schtick, which you'll find out about in due course, and then designed their custom Airship, the Tigerfish class Bountiful Queen. The party also didn't want to start at either High Tortuga or Isla Aether, so they created a new skyloft, called Sanctum. (It was to prove anything but!)
We started things off with the game mechanics and how they worked, some test skill and attribute rolls, and then some samples of combat to show them how those particular combat mechanics work. I then answered a few more questions from the group about the world of Airship Pirates, and then got down to actual playing.
The player characters started on the Sanctum skyloft, a small skyloft as these things go, having just finished their last assignment, and taking some time to enjoy a bit of booze and other liquor (and other pleasures) at a local establishment, "The Good Spirits". Know one could figure out why the brawl started, but the characters got involved in a brawl as a young girl was being bartered in one corner by a group of men who looked rather...old, grizzled, and unkind. The Automaton and former doll, Haley Deuce, couldn't let the girl fall prey to those men, and the player characters managed to get the girl, who called herself Calliandra Shade, out of the pit stop and headed back for their airship with her in tow.
Nearing the dock of the Bountiful Queen, the player characters were attacked by several of the Sanctum defenders, the Righteous Ones, and had to flee from their ship, managing to escape by swinging across an open void to another one of the docking ports via dangling cords. Peter Bear Redwood had problems making the jaunt across, but was eventually goaded into it by Arthur Quentin-Smythe. The party confronted several of the crew of the Liberty, who thought they were pirates come to attack them, but Emily Harrington-Boothe and Jeanette Storm convinced them otherwise, and gave them a recommendation to deal with several of their contacts in the skyloft, thus softening the enmity of the Liberty crew members.
Leaving the ship's berth, the player characters managed to sneak around and make their way back to the Bountiful Queen, where they were greeted by Captain "Red" Angela Stormfist. She was not amused, as the player characters had caused her to be visited by several of the Righteous, who made claims against both the ship and the player characters, claims that caused the Bountiful to be forced to remain in port while the matter was sorted out. Captain Stormfist was not amused at all by the presence of Calliandra Shade, but the girl promised to be on her best behaviour, and Emily and Haley promised to take responsibility while the girl was on the airship.
The game session ended with the player characters realising they have their hands full with Calliandra, who went missing somewhere near the cargo area. Along with Goldeye Tyler and Pete "Hammer" McGinty, the characters started their search for the girl...
When the Friday session was finished, around 12:30 pm, the players told me that they were ecstatic and thrilled about how the game went, and they thought that Airship Pirates was the most fun they'd had roleplaying in some time. David, the relative newbie to the group, said that he rather liked the game mechanics, and it was nice to get back to simple, basic mechanics. (Whatever that meant.) The rest of the players found the game to be very evocative of the setting, but wished that I had some of the Abney Park music to get them into the mood a bit more. Overall, I had a great time with the game, though like the players, I'm still learning the game system and all.
Looking forward to next Friday night's session, for sure! :)
Friday night, the gaming group met and I started the Airship Pirates rpg campaign with the gaming group. For those who don't know, Airship Pirates is a post-apocalyptic steampunk roleplaying game whose backdrop is the dark, Neovictorian world created by the band Abney Park (led by Captain Robert Brown) in their songs over the past few albums.
While the first meet-up to do the Airship Pirates game was technically dealt with in this journal entry, the players did not completely finish their characters up for the game. So that was the first step in terms of getting ready to run the game this night.
In any event, the player characters that have been created by the players are an intriguing mix of characters, to say the least. Kathy Bauer is playing Lady Emily Harrington-Boothe, an Upper Class Neovictorian lady with a knowledge of swordsmanship who fled her old life as she had no desire to marry the man picked out by her family. Nick Roberts is playing Neobedouin Peter Bear Redwood, an outrider who returned from a scouting mission to find his entire tribe had been wiped out by what appeared to be a Neovictorian attack! Tom Robinson is playing Andrew Hartwell, a Servant class Neovictorian who became an Air Marine, but jumped ship when he found out that life in the Imperial Air Navy was all a lie. Joanne Clarke is playing Jeanette Storm, a Skyfolk trader, who has realised that she wants more adventure than just doing her job and being responsible to the skyloft officials and making sure the helium supply is adequate. Angela Marsh is playing Haley Deuce, a Neovictorian Automaton Doll, who witnessed something one night in the brothel where she worked, and has been on the run ever since. David Matchuk, the newest player to the Friday group, is playing Arthur Quentin-Smythe, a Dilettante who became bored with the (as he saw them) "games" of the Neovictorian Upper Class, and wanted more out of life. Stealing away from the city on one of the barges, he's definitely found what he's looking for - and more! Last but not least, my goddaughter Ellie is playing Calliandra Shade, a sort of street type from Isla Aether who finds herself a trouble magnet, and has now hooked up with the player characters.
Once the player characters were completed to the group's satisfaction, they chose their Schtick, which you'll find out about in due course, and then designed their custom Airship, the Tigerfish class Bountiful Queen. The party also didn't want to start at either High Tortuga or Isla Aether, so they created a new skyloft, called Sanctum. (It was to prove anything but!)
We started things off with the game mechanics and how they worked, some test skill and attribute rolls, and then some samples of combat to show them how those particular combat mechanics work. I then answered a few more questions from the group about the world of Airship Pirates, and then got down to actual playing.
The player characters started on the Sanctum skyloft, a small skyloft as these things go, having just finished their last assignment, and taking some time to enjoy a bit of booze and other liquor (and other pleasures) at a local establishment, "The Good Spirits". Know one could figure out why the brawl started, but the characters got involved in a brawl as a young girl was being bartered in one corner by a group of men who looked rather...old, grizzled, and unkind. The Automaton and former doll, Haley Deuce, couldn't let the girl fall prey to those men, and the player characters managed to get the girl, who called herself Calliandra Shade, out of the pit stop and headed back for their airship with her in tow.
Nearing the dock of the Bountiful Queen, the player characters were attacked by several of the Sanctum defenders, the Righteous Ones, and had to flee from their ship, managing to escape by swinging across an open void to another one of the docking ports via dangling cords. Peter Bear Redwood had problems making the jaunt across, but was eventually goaded into it by Arthur Quentin-Smythe. The party confronted several of the crew of the Liberty, who thought they were pirates come to attack them, but Emily Harrington-Boothe and Jeanette Storm convinced them otherwise, and gave them a recommendation to deal with several of their contacts in the skyloft, thus softening the enmity of the Liberty crew members.
Leaving the ship's berth, the player characters managed to sneak around and make their way back to the Bountiful Queen, where they were greeted by Captain "Red" Angela Stormfist. She was not amused, as the player characters had caused her to be visited by several of the Righteous, who made claims against both the ship and the player characters, claims that caused the Bountiful to be forced to remain in port while the matter was sorted out. Captain Stormfist was not amused at all by the presence of Calliandra Shade, but the girl promised to be on her best behaviour, and Emily and Haley promised to take responsibility while the girl was on the airship.
The game session ended with the player characters realising they have their hands full with Calliandra, who went missing somewhere near the cargo area. Along with Goldeye Tyler and Pete "Hammer" McGinty, the characters started their search for the girl...
When the Friday session was finished, around 12:30 pm, the players told me that they were ecstatic and thrilled about how the game went, and they thought that Airship Pirates was the most fun they'd had roleplaying in some time. David, the relative newbie to the group, said that he rather liked the game mechanics, and it was nice to get back to simple, basic mechanics. (Whatever that meant.) The rest of the players found the game to be very evocative of the setting, but wished that I had some of the Abney Park music to get them into the mood a bit more. Overall, I had a great time with the game, though like the players, I'm still learning the game system and all.
Looking forward to next Friday night's session, for sure! :)