NEW & OLD Playtest Campaign: Dirty Deeds in Space

[RisTigger]

Episode 7: Return to Insanity

Whew~ Welcome back to Dirty Deeds in Space! It's been 8 years and our crew has finally reunited with each other. They've had a long road getting here.


First off, the crew have been in the Cigney system on Sa’La’s home planet, Mahna. It's a bizarre jungle planet filled to the brim with magic. That's created some crazy crap such as living plants and giant savage animals.

Vera
Dead Eyes
Vera is a badass sniper with a chip on her shoulder. She doesn't take anyone's crap and is precise in her execution of anyone she deems in her way. Recently, she has become possessed by a being named FIRE.

Vera has been on the move over these 8 years. She's been searching for FIRE and Spalding, in case they survived and are hunting them. To survive, she's been taking odd jobs as a bounty hunter, though she's not very good at it because she just ends up killing everyone. Most importantly, she now has access to psionic powers thanks to her encounter with FIRE and the Space Butterfly. Now she's attempting to master them but it's slow going. Before reuniting with the crew, she got a tip from Red Faction (a group of master hackers) about FIRE. She is directed to an abandoned building and finds a communicator. It activated and she begins speaking with KINGDOM.

KINGDOM
Master Hacker
The mysterious hacker that knows about FIRE and the inner workings of the universe.

KINGDOM informs Vera that she has been infected by the psychic energy inside FIRE. FIRE and QUEEN are beings made of pure psychic energy. They have a connection with the Space Butterfly. Unfortunately, FIRE will attempt to take over Vera's mind and body. She can resist the control, but she should stay near people that wouldn't hesitate to help her...or put her down.

Sa'La
Magic Space Dragon
Sa'La is a powerful magician with a large list of versatile spells. She's quiet and not a people person, but she's dependable.

Sa'La hasn't been doing much, mostly just trying to keep everyone safe on Mahna. In her down time, she's sought out some hermits that have mastered the art of magic. She's also become boned with a meta-phoenix...whatever that is.

Maxwell Curless
Clueless Space Captain
Formerly Elieth Runestar, the suave captain of the Crimson Star. He always has a plan, it's just that they are usually horrible. Forever next to danger, Maxwell is always prepared...to die in some horrible way.

Maxwell, while trying to lay low, has just been taking odd jobs to stay afloat. The most important thing he's done, was buy a trench coat, fedora and antique revolver. Thanks to the magic of Mahna, he's become aware of his talent with Chi.

Wonderboom Mozart
Dark Lord of the Hamsters!
A mysterious android they found in a box of drugs, Mozart is now the crews engineer. He might have a few screws loose which isn't unusual with this gang. He manages the hamsters that run on wheels to power the engines.

Mozart has been working at the local space port as an engineer for hire. The jungle is terrifying and he would rather die that go into the dense nest of evil (a little ironic). He also built himself a new body and it's...special. Imagine Sauron crossed with a Gimp Suit.

Wilfred Bardicson V
Tiny Con Artist
Wilfred and Maxwell have been friends for a while and when he heard Maxwell was in a jam, he went off to help. He's a con artist that can get whatever he wants with a few words.

Wilfred has been working hard these past 8 years, gathering money from various sources. He's been nice enough to funnel a lot of funds to the rest of the crew. After 8 years, he's finally returned for more adventure.


The session started with the crew talking to an old client, Murphy.

Murphy
Sad Sack of the Universe
He owns a small import export company that sometimes hires Maxwell. Nothing in this mans life works right...

Murphy wants them to just transport some goods from one location to another. They're going to be meeting the client at a bar. Murphy has some trouble describing the guy they will be meeting, but they all have to be at the bar. The client wants to see the entire crew. After some carousing, they get out that the client is a big guy that wears clothes and has a hat and brown shoes. Yeah...really descriptive. Murphy is just a bundle of nerves ready to snap at any moment.

The crew arrive at the only bar in the port city, the Mahna Bar. Everything in the bar is made with magic, creating an interesting atmosphere of magical explosions and flying drinks. Vera is a regular. Wilfred, feeling bold orders whatever the bartender recommends and gets a Newt Surprise, a green sludge with an eye inside the glass. The surprise is that it goes down smooth...but comes back up rough. Wilfred did not have the endurance to handle the magic drink.

The bartender comes back and informs Wilfred that he's flat broke. Maxwell tries to pay for the sick smallfolk but he's also broke. The rest of the crew try and...they're all out of credits. The bartender is about to throw them out when someone pays for their drinks. It's a small elf woman sitting in the corner. The group joins her, wondering who she is.

The mysterious woman pulls out a rare Earth coin and asks Maxwell, who she refers to as Elieth, if he believes in luck. Maxwell replies that he doesn't. She takes the coin and tells him to call it. Maxwell calls heads.

The coin falls on heads. She congratulates him and gives him the coin, it's his lucky coin now. She also says that, as per the rules of the game, she will tell them what happened. Verner has stolen their money and their ship. This was a trap. The crew is pissed and are ready to take Verner out. Maxwell and the mysterious lady play the game one more time, with Maxwell winning again. She says that Verner is on the other side of the planet, having built a giant enterprise in planets second largest port city. She gets up to leave, but not before showing them her badge.

Lady Luck?
Galactic Marshal
A mysterious marshal that believes heavily in luck. She knows who Elieth is.

Without any money or ship, the crew decides to give Murphy a visit and get some answers. They go to his office but the door is locked and no one is answers. Sa'La opens the lock and inside, they find an assassin holding a sword to a tied up Murphy's throat. The assassin panics and tosses Murphy at Maxwell and tries to run out the window.

Sa'La, acting quick, catches the assassin in the air with a spell and holds her against the ground. Wilfred goes to interrogate her, threatening her with a gun but she's not talking. The group wastes too much time and she breaks free of the spell and tries to stab Wilfred with the sword but his armor stops it. She panics and gets shot in the leg for her troubles. Sa'La re-traps her on the ceiling for her troubles. However, they waste too much time and she breaks free again, instead opting to just jump out the window and run.

Wilfred jumps out the window and runs after her. Vera in the mean time, gets a bead on the assassin and shoots her in the leg. She's hurt but still running. Mozart sees Wilfred running after the girl and joins the chase.

It's a rough chase because she ducks into an alley to avoid the sniper. The two follow but they can't find her. After a few failed checks they finally see her...running on the side of the building. She sees that they've noticed her and runs onto the roof. Wilfred uses a nearby fire escape to get into the roof easily but Mozart has a harder time. Wilfred also yells out that the assassin is on the roofs. Once Wilfred gets on the roof he sees she is running towards a small courier ship waiting for her.

Sa'La hears what's going on and flies up to the roofs. She tries catching the assassin with another spell but it fails. Some goons come out and start shooting at the group. Wilfred is hit and he loses his last dice. Before he falls to the ground, he shoots the ship with an ion blast...though it doesn't do much.

The assassin makes it on the ship and escapes.

The group goes back to try and calm Murphy down, who is really upset about this whole situation, so he can hopefully arrange a ride to where Verner is. Murphy makes some calls...most of them he hangs up on because it's rude to call at this hour...but he finally finds someone with a ship headed near the city. The group will just have to trek through the jungle for a few miles...

Wilfred is incredibly pissed off at this whole situation and steals Murphy's lunch money. Literally.

The group arrive at the space port and are ready to get on the ship, when Maxwell spies Lady Luck. He tries to ignore her but she comes up to him and asks if he's going to kill Verner. Maxwell says only if it comes to that. Lady Luck says that the universe has been in a state of flux after Maxwell killed FIRE. He needs luck on his side if he's going to survive.

The ship ride is...not pleasant. The ship is small and cramped. Also there's the captain who's...

The Captain
Afjksdjkfask sdklafyutuynfa gmpwjgsklg!!!
Yeah no one knows what the hell he's saying...

The speakers in the ship are broken so everything the captain says is unintelligible garbage. Wilfred is not amused and goes to the cockpit. The captain addresses Wilfred, while still talking through the loud speaker. Wilfred just...he kind of shuts down his brain to avoid shooting everyone in the cabin and goes back to his seat. The captain continues to talk over the speaker and finally Wilfred just shoots the damn thing with his gun.

...Turns out the captain could have just talked normally, because everyone could hear him just fine.

Suddenly the ship is attacked by a dragon and all their engines are blasted off. The ship is plummeting down towards the planet. Sa'La tries to use her magic to keep the thing afloat but it's too heavy. The best she can do is the cabin but the rest of the ship is falling. The group use their laser weapons to separate the cabin from the hull just in time.

After many agonizing days of flying, the group arrive at their destination. Hungry, cold, tired, hot and angry. Verner is near. Now they just need to survive the jungle to get to him.

CREDITS!

[video=youtube;H1mX8ptsmBM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1mX8ptsmBM[/video]

So yeah, that was our return session. I thought it was a lot off fun. The new stats are going to take some time to get used to but now I have a good idea how everyone works. I'm planning something big for when they finally confront Verner to get back the Crimson Star. It's going to be good, hopefully.

 

[RisTigger]

Episode 8: Goodnight


The game started with the group arriving in the camp near the city. The campers aren't too happy to see them. The leader of the campers is pretty pissed that the food was in the part of the ship that got blown off. After some heated words, our tired group sits down to rest for the first time in a while. Sa'La is also extremely tired because she couldn't sleep the whole way.

Mozart creeped out the campers and was banished to the edge of the camp. He was alright with that. Elieth wanted to stay up and help keep watch but was too tired and instantly fell asleep.

Sa'La had a dream that night. She dreamed about the time right after they defeated FIRE. She helped the crew recover but after that was done she stood next to Eleith in the control room. He was busily plotting their course and keeping busy to not think about what just happened. Sa'La hugged him and was glad he's their captain and he's safe.

Back in the present Mozart is doing the creeper dance...he does it very successfully. But his dancing is interrupted by a scream in the night. After some long deliberation, Mozart leaps into action with his sword, cutting a hole in the tent where the scream came from...despite there already being an entrance to the tent. Laying on the cot is a pile of Draconian bones. Mozart, being a caring robot, worries that everyone will think he did it.

The group and campers enter the tent. The leader is shocked at there being a robot sanding over a pile of bones with a sword but the group applies some logic to the situation. Sa'La examines the corpse and finds tiny little particles of magic on the bones. She takes a moment to think about what could have done it and concludes it was a swarm of insects.

The campers conclude it's not safe and prepare to leave even though it's the dead of night. It's risky but everyone agrees.

After a while of walking they suddenly hear an animals war cry erupt from the jungle. Mozart scans the area and finds there are swarms of insects around their feet. Upon closer examination, they look like ants...but with tiny little infantry uniforms on. The army ants squeak and it sometimes sounds like "Viva la revolution!"

Elieth and Wilfred leap into the trees to escape the swarm while Mozart tries to shoot them, unsuccessfully.

The swarm kill off some of the campers and Sa'La leaps into action. She surrounds herself in fire. The ants burn under her flames as she somersaults into the swarms. Vera just shoots them.

Elieth and Wilfred are in the trees...but they aren't alone. Eleith doesn't see them but Wilfred does. As Wilfred is catching his breath, he sees something in the corner of his eye. There's an otter wearing a Japanese archer's uniform next to him. Wilfred just kind of breaks after that. He just hangs his head and thinks about his life.

The otter goes up and tries to comfort him. He pats him on the shoulder and makes cute little sounds. Wilfred just sighs and goes deeper into shock. The otter then wacks him over the head with a shell. And it hurts.

Wilfred panics and jumps down from the tree and hides behind Mozart, taking blind pot shots at the otter. And that's when it gets weird. Yeah I know. A gorilla wearing a generals uniform shows up.

Napoleon Bonanapart
Crazy Gorilla with a Complex
It's a gorilla with a generals uniform on. Of course it is!

The gorilla gives out a great cry, strengthening his troops. Sa'La sees this and decides the best thing to do is try and negotiate with a gorilla. The gorilla agrees to a cease fire and brings out a tiny table with a teapot and teacups. The gorilla drinks some tea and listens to Sa'La. Sa'La tries to convince the gorilla that this is pointless but it doesn't work. The gorilla gets angry and flips the table. Combat continues...what is going on?!

Elieth is trying to fight the otter but it's not going well. He then tries to get the otter into a fist fight. He drops the pistol and makes the universal "come at me bro" sign. The otter doesn't care because it's an otter. It throws a shell and knocks Elieth out. With a little bit of luck, he doesn't fall on the ground and get hurt.

The battle rages on with the ants getting burned alive or destroyed by bullets. One of the otters is shot and killed by Wilfred. The gorilla is tough and no one can really hurt him except for Vera.

The otter in the trees grabs Elieth and runs off with him. Wilfred, not seeing Elieth anywhere decides to go look for him. The battle ends when the gorilla runs off and jumps onto a giant armored boar and leaves. That begins a chase as the others try to catch up with Wilfred. Wilfred is sneaking through the brush trying to follow the rustling in the trees. The others are running but have to quickly avoid the gorilla barging out of the trees and swinging a bamboo staff at the group. They all avoid it and the gorilla disappears again. Sa'La decides to fly off to help.

The group then comes face to face with a procession of otters throwing shells at them. Mozart and Vera avoid them all except a large otter pops out of nowhere brandishing a shell like a bow and arrow...yeah. The group gets to roll initiative to try and take it out. Vera succeeds and shoots out a cannon blast of psychic energy, incinerating the otter.

Finally, Wilfred catches up to the otter and shoots it. His shot hits home and the otter dies. Elieth drops to the ground. Wilfred goes and checks on him but it's too late.

Elieth Runestar is dead.

The rest of the crew shows up. Mozart asks how he's doing but Wilfred can't find a pulse. Sa'La flies into the air and unleashes her whole magic power, clearing the darkness. Mozart practically breaks down from the shock.

It's a sad day for the crew of the Crimson Star.

Credits...

[video=youtube;7DiWxcilWtU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DiWxcilWtU[/video]


Well. This sucks. I loved Eleith as a character. He was great and I loved helping to tell his particular story. He also didn't get a very heroic death. An otter killed him. A freaking otter. Every single END dice roll he lost a dice except for one. He only lasted 5 turns.

Here are some words from the player.

"I enjoyed the character and lets hope we get more support for people with more style and less gear."

Elieth was a style character. He wasn't made for battle. But he would have been better if there were more options for social characters.

That's about it. We're off for two weeks to give me a break.

 

[RisTigger]

R.I.P. Elieth Runestar
AKA Maxwell Curless
"You need to learn from the best."​

Art by http://krossan.deviantart.com/

 

[Morrus]

Wow. That was crazy!

Elieth was a style character. He wasn't made for battle. But he would have been better if there were more options for social characters.

That's part system - what can I do to help with that from the design point of view? What sort of options does your player mean?

It's also very much adventure design. I really do need to write an example non-combat focused adventure! So much to do!

 

[RisTigger]

That's part system - what can I do to help with that from the design point of view? What sort of options does your player mean?

It's also very much adventure design. I really do need to write an example non-combat focused adventure! So much to do!

I think the p!ayer wants more universal exploits that can be used by non-combat characters to help their allies. You have a lot of cool careers that don't focus on combat and it would be nice to know taking those choices will still be useful, even in combat.

 

[Morrus]

I think the p!ayer wants more universal exploits that can be used by non-combat characters to help their allies. You have a lot of cool careers that don't focus on combat and it would be nice to know taking those choices will still be useful, even in combat.

Do you have some examples of ideas? I could easily add a dozen exploits which allows a character to buff somebody else, but being the buff-machine is never much fun in an RPG in my experience!

We're talking about combat, specifically, right? Would it not help to have a lot of non-combat encounters? Technical, sneaky, social, engineery, medical, researchy, investigatory? I'm not 100% sold that everybody has to be good at combat, any more than everybody has to be good at engineering or social situations.

I could add a sidebar making non-combat characters good at combat easily enough as an optional rule. Do you think that might help?

 

[Pixel]

I'm not 100% sold that everybody has to be good at combat, any more than everybody has to be good at engineering or social situations.

I could add a sidebar making non-combat characters good at combat easily enough as an optional rule. Do you think that might help?

I think there's something cool in playing a character you know is screwed at the first sign of combat, and removing the option to play that would be a loss for the system. Wilfred is only really having a chance at combat due to his high-tech gear ^^ but more universal exploits that let's you do cool stuff in non-combat situations would be fantastic As of now I don't know exactly what, and I realize it's not as easy as it sounds, but I will do some thinking, and try to come up with some ideas

 

[Morrus]

but more universal exploits that let's you do cool stuff in non-combat situations would be fantastic

Sorry! I'm not clear. Is the issue exploits for non-combatants in combat, or is it for characters in non-combat situations?

 

[RisTigger]

Episode 9: Best Laid Plans

We’re back once again, after a long break the crew is back together. So deciding where to start out was a bit of a challenge. Elieth had just died, so do we skip ahead or do we soldier on from where we left off. Fortunately, Mozart made that choice for me. He started running into the jungle screaming and crying. The rest of the group just let him be and continued mourning.

While screaming through the jungle, chopping through the underbrush. He finally appears at a paved road with various bodies and skeletons lining the sides. Mozart decides to ignore the proof of how dangerous the jungle was and continue screaming into the storm.

From behind him, someone or something jumps on his back. Lucky for Mozart, his armor has spikes. He hears a cry from behind him and turns around to see Napoleon Bonananpart. The gorilla shrieks and tries to punch Mozart, landing a heavy but ineffective blow. Mozart activates his shield and the two fight.

The crew hear the commotion and run towards it, making sure to grab Elieth.

The gorilla isn’t very effective since Mozart is a giant walking tank. The group arrives and decides to blow the gorilla to pieces. The gorilla is pinned and shot up, but in a last desperate act he rips his own heart out. Creatures in the jungle are all full of magic, and it turns out this gorilla’s heart is covered in magical runes. The magic allows the gorilla to control the weather and he sends a lightning bolt to strike Mozart, with Wilfred getting hit by a residual blast. It doesn’t work…

The gorilla is defeated and the group finds themselves almost to the city. They’re preparing to depart when Wilfred gets a call on his communicator. It’s Elieth’s step-sister.

Amanda (Runestar) Stark
The Star Knight is Coming
A Stalwart knight working to find Elieth and bring down Verner. She is dedicated to her job, but she has a soft spot for her step-brother.

So it turns out Amanda has been on the planet, and even was the one that found the Crimson Star. She made sure it didn’t run because she knew it was Elieth’s ship. Since Elieth died, she received a communication saying she now owns the Crimson Star. She's ready to help the group reclaim the ship and avenge Elieth's death.

They agree to wait outside the city to meet up. The group explores a little and finds an abandoned cabin on the outskirts of the city. After detecting no one inside, they decide to rest inside. After about 20 minutes, the house begins to shake and Elieth's body begins to glow. Elieth's ghost appears inside the cabin. The cabin was built on top of a layline of magic, allowing this miracle to happen. This is a touching reunion between the characters and Elieth is given a chance to say goodbye. As Elieth fades from the material plane, he sees the spirit of Fire attached to Vera.

Amanda arrives and the group gets planning. And BOY do they plan. Sa'La tries to use a scrying spell to find Verner but someone has an anti-magic barrier around the city, stopping that plan.

Wilfred goes into the city to try and work his way into the criminal underworld. He manages to get an audience with the cities only criminal leader, a man named Quarrels.

Meanwhile, Amanda reports that the crew has been killed to try and deter Verner. Unfortunately, someone has been keeping an eye on her and a man from Vern Co. named Honeth interrogates her.

Honeth
Mysterious Vern Co. Executive
Who the hell is this guy?

Amanda is furious that a draconian, who wasn't even an officer of the star marines, was allowed to interrogate her. She chews out her commanding officer who informs her, in private, that Vern Co. was the one that provided the funding for the base on the Draconian homeworld, since the Star Marines weren't interested.

Wilfred finally is close to meeting Quarrels, but as he's waiting, Lady Luck? shows up. She asks if he has the coin. He does and flips it, failing the coin toss. She berates him and says he's on a bad road. He will find where Verner is if he meets with Quarrels, but that will only lead to a terrible future.

She holds up the coin and says, if he chooses heads, his crew can leave this god forsaken planet and lead a life somewhere else in relative happiness. If he chooses tails, he will lead them down the road to Verner, and to ruin. People will die if he follows this path. She flips the coin and tells Wilfred to call it. He thinks for a long moment, before finally saying tails. The coin lands on tails.

Wilfred enters the mob bosses lair and is confronted with a short golden draconian.

Quarrels
He can get you Anything
The only criminal leader on the draconian homeworld and a powerful information broker.

Wilfred asks for information on Verner which Quarrels can provide, but for a steep price. Wilfred struggles to come up with a plan to repay the guy...but is suddenly struck by inspiration. He's going to trade the psychic relic they still have. Quarrels considers this, before finally agreeing to the terms.

An hour later, Wilfred learns that Verner is holed up in Vern Co. headquarters, the largest building in the city. A storm is coming on the horizon.

CREDITS!!!

[video=youtube;X-Emp7SqUqs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-Emp7SqUqs[/video]


So yeah, we're back to the game. I think we're going to be wrapping up this campaign soon. We're coming to a natural ending point.

Also, we're still struggling with crazy defense and soak. I think there needs to be a bit more penalties for higher soak. If you're a melee fighter, it makes sense to have more soak because you're going to be getting hit more so it's better to mitigate damage rather than taking a risk on possibly avoiding it. While ranged fighters aren't hit as much and they usually have less health. I think there needs to be a balance between the two to make one more viable over the other, because right now you can have both high defense and soak.

 

[Morrus]

Also, we're still struggling with crazy defense and soak. I think there needs to be a bit more penalties for higher soak. If you're a melee fighter, it makes sense to have more soak because you're going to be getting hit more so it's better to mitigate damage rather than taking a risk on possibly avoiding it. While ranged fighters aren't hit as much and they usually have less health. I think there needs to be a balance between the two to make one more viable over the other, because right now you can have both high defense and soak.

That's interesting. What scores are we talking here? The DEFENSE score is limited by the dice pool size, so it should be hard to get that too high. I have been waiting to hear playtest feedback back on the medium/heavy armour penalties, so this could be the info I've been needing! To an extent it's harder in my own playtests because I naturally veer towards the intent of the game as it exists in my mind, which is why external feedback is so useful.