Merchanters And Stationers - Setting up the Spyrate Setting

So I randomly generated the worlds and stations of the six alien species in our Spyrate setting. It is very unlikely to generate a habitable world, but it can and did happen. All the species automatically get a homeworld, of course, That's necessary! But I also generated two random habitable worlds, one for the Mashtusad, in the same system as their homeworld, and one for the Trassein, in a different system from their homeworld. That is interesting, and gives both of these species a bit of an advantage, but not what I wanted to talk about.

M&S is not centered on planets, but on stations. Stations are the lifeblood of the game setting. Worlds are mostly things to be mined or otherwise extract resources from, especially asteroid belts. There are rare instances where a station is damaged or mothballed for possible later use in the generation tables. I rolled two such instances, both damaged stations.

The first was a small station in (can't remember the name) Space. These people are not good with science, and do not even make their own spaceships. They are good with art, and fashion, and consider themselves the arbiters of taste. They only have five stations, and one of them was damaged and uninhabitable.

The second was an enormous station in Mastusad Space. The Mashusad are a much more powerful people. Mediators by nature, they are scavengers and carrion eaters, and pack-minded. It takes a lot to piss them off.

I asked Klaxon why had these stations blown. He's a player in the game, and this is a very player oriented game.

He said obviously the first station was a screw up. The species is just not good with science, and were carrying out some kind of lame-brained experiment that got out of control. They probably wouldn't talk about it, embarrassed by the subject.

The second, he said was obviously sabotage. He traced the trade routes of Mashtusad Space. It looked like a twisting snake, starting at Central Station and going far out before returning back to the Tamberlin Space border, and ending in a tail. The damaged station was the last big station before the border.

His theory was that the PC's faction, the Old Regime, traded through that long jump into Mashtusad Space even after it lost power, and the New Regime's agents blew the station to prevent trade with the remnants of the Old Regime. He said I would probably find the Mastusad did not like the current Regime.

I looked through the points they had made in the setup phase on Saturday, and there it was: Mashtusad Do Not Trust The Tamberlin. Bam!

This is making some crazy, scary kind of sense! :D

Merchants And Stationers - Take #11

One of the things that my M&S playtest group purchased with their Association funds was a small station on the edge of Tamberlin Space, right next to the single Methane Breather (Vool'k) border. The players decided that the Vool'k did not permit Tamberlins in their space, but also put in that they had secret negotiations with the Tamberlins. They decided that this meant the new regime was barred from Vool'k Space, but the old regime in exile was still able to cross.

Another thing they bought was a Rare Astronomical Database, which they decided meant it listed several secret jump routes, I gave them 1d6 and they rolled five, which they proceeded to put on the star map. So their station, with a shipyard and not much else, has a direct cross-border jump route to Vool'k space.

Their HQ is not the station. Their HQ is their ship, the Mad Prince, registered as a merchanter out of their station, but actually a 600 ton hunter ship, crammed with guns - no lasers in this setting - and missile launchers, armored, and with powerful drives, both real space and jump vanes.

They also bought a bunch of Bolt Holes - tiny emergency stations hidden inside asteroids - some spy rings on the major stations in Tamberlin Space, a couple of mid-level agents, one double agent ostensibly working the other side, and station security and some mercenaries (pirates) to board captured ships.

The initial seed money for the Association came from the exiled monarch's secret stash of hidden resources, who they decided currently resides in exile at the Central Station - outside Tamberlin Space, technically, but controlled by the Tamberlin. It is currently financed by sale of the cargoes they loot from sympathizers of the current regime, and sale to aliens of the ships they take, the shipyard acting as a chop shop.

The leader of the player characters is the prince in exile - the Mad Prince - a PC who volunteered for the job. Yay! He makes all the decisions for the PCs! I don't have to! :D

Merchanters And Stationers - Take #10

This is my group! They are CRAZY MAD AND WONDERFUL!

We had our first (Set up) session of the M&S playtest on Saturday. We are starting with the All-Alien - AKA the Compact Space - setup It went very well! We started off with some basic decisions. I had pre-made a bunch of oxy-breather aliens, and offered them for the group's use, or they were free to create the various alien species. They chose to create the PC species - in fact each of the players created a species (all of them took the Trickster package, BTW) and they voted on what they liked. We put away the non-winners, because they were all tricksters, and decided to choose from among the group I had pre-made for the other species in our Compact.

Then they rolled the number of other species - five oxygen breathers and one Methane breather - chose them, and we made a quick star map. Then we got into the relations of the various species with each other. For this we used a set of 27 cards I had printed and cut out, with various relationships (secret dealings, valuable trade, owns central station, etc.) on them, shuffled them, and counted out four for each species. I distriuted the cards randomly among the players, and they began layout how the various species felt about each other, how they traded, and the like.

At the end, they went a completely different way than I had thought. The PC species they had created - the Tamburlins - had the most powerful jump drive, could change vector in mid-jump -both of these normally reserved for Methane Breathers, but there was only one of those - and controlled the central station. All the other species hated, distrusted, and/or feared the Tamburlin because of this. Also, piracy was rife in Tamburlin Space.

Then they made their association. There were two proposals, to create an espionage company and a company of pirates, so they compromised on Spyrates. The Tamburlin had recently undergone a revolution. The old ruler was in exile on Central Station, while his heir formed a privateer group. They would be trying to build up support with aliens, while hurting and trying to undermine and destroy the new government. Then they made their characters - a squad of spies and a squad of pirates.

This is my group! They are CRAZY MAD AND WONDERFUL!

Merchanters And Stationers - Take #9

So we begin playtesting M&S this weekend. I have completed starships, alien creation, setting generation - two actually! One for Humans Only and one for Aliens Only, chargen is straight from StarCluster 3 with some professions barred - No PSI, no military in the Aliens Only setting, and a few mechanical and fluff bits for life in the settings including a nasty Stress Mechanic, equipment will also be from SC3, and station creation.

I need some kind of space combat mechanic. I'll want something simple! Possibly some stake setting gambling thing, or maybe something component based. I don't necessarily need anything on the first day, but eventually it will come into play.

I have some glimmers of ideas, so I'll let you in on what I come up with! :D

Oh! And I need to play-test the playing card resolution mechanic! That's new too!

StarWars-ish and the Battle for Endor

Finished our Star Wars-ish StarCLuster 3 campaign last night! The gang arrived in Annaj - the Moddell sector capital, just after the Rebel alliance fleet left. They decided that, since they *knew* the Imperial fleet was in ambush, and where, they took a jump to a secondary system, and from there jumped in at an angle behind the gas giant, where the Imperial fleet was in wait.

They decided to take out if they could a Super Star Destroyer, so went in with a prisoner delivery. This was the five Jedi and and the spy who had warned the group about the ambush, with unlocked force cuffs, and Lyssia, the ex-navy padawan, dressed in the Imperial Navy uniform she was in to steal the Grand Moff Takin, the frigate they were using.

The spy was s known high value prisoner, and that got them in to see the Admiral and Flag Lieutenant, along with a dozen stormtroopers. The Jedi and Lyssia took them all out but two in one surprise round, and they immediately surrendered.

From there they went into the nearby bridge, where they took out the Captain and lieutenant, shoved the controls over so that the SSD pitched towards another SSD, welded the controls, took out the comm and navigation, and blew the bridge's power junction - where Lyssia knew quite well the location.

They backed out of the bridge under shields and ran to the nearest escape pod bank, took out the guard, and popped out just before the two SSDs collided.

Meanwhile, Shiraska and the group in the Moff Tarkin fixed the controls to ram the bridge of a Star Destroyer, and left in the Albireo, while the rest left in the Shakti, the Y wing, and Dindar's Dungeon (scout) for the forest moon.

As the Grand Moff Tarkin collided with the star Destroyer's bridge, three Tie fighters arrowed in at the Albireo. They were shot down, and the Albireo scooped up the escape pod with the Jedi, Lyssia, and the spy.

The Shakti had left with the youngest padawans, but the Y-Wing and Dindar's Dungeon went to the Forest Moon. Dindar's Dungeon landed with Dindar and the Spec Ops bunch near the main entrance to the shield generator. It was protected by two AT-ATs and two AT-STs. After three passes of the Y-wing, all four vehicles were burning. Meanwhile the Spec Ops and Dindar assaulted the stormtroopers. Dindar was badly wounded in the battle, but the spec ops were fine. They took out 18 of the twenty stormtroopers, and the other two were wounded and surrendered.

The blew the door with a mortar, and ran in, only to find the shield generators wired and ready to blow, with only seconds to get back out. They barely made it - classic blown through the doorway by the blast stuff - and rendezvoused with the Albireo, witnessing the explosion of the Death Star II, and the defeat of the (much less powerful) Imperial fleet.

That's all we can do until the movie comes out this winter. So we set up a playtest of Merchanters And Stationers for next week.

Merchanters and Stationers Take #8

Just a small note. the intention here is to release this for free. It is not a complete game, but with StarCluster 3 or StarCluster 3 Light (free to DL), it will be. I expect the vast majority of downloads will be by those people who vacuum up anything so long as it is free, who will then ignore it, because they have ten thousand free RPGs. :D

Merchanters And Stationers - Take #7

Working last night on a section I'm calling "Life", where I talk about all the things that actually living in this setting would mean. What different ship's crews are like, what Jump is like, What the War was like, what is the new Peace like, etc.

I mean during the War a lot of refugees lost their papers, which means criminals and agents could be - were - mixed in with a lot of unfortunate and innocent souls. This is set just after the War, Ex Earth Fleet pirates (Mazianni, but I don't use that word) are trying to survive while being hunted down, huge family ships are taking the bulk of the trade, small traders are trying to survive on the margins, some stations are mothballed, others are blown... This is a great time to explore!