EI1: Awakening
Contents
Recap
The characters woke up staggered by hibernation sickness to discover the upper level of their bolthole in ruins and half of their team dead. Still lying in shattered cryotanks, team leader Steve Wilson, medic Dave Monroe and mechanic/weapons specialist Amir Rosenblatt were reduced to mere bones. Somehow during the sleep period the emergency exit hatch became compromised, and evidence suggested a group of individuals gained entrance. Equipment was missing, but everyone managed to get weapons and food.
The first order of business was securing the base and determining which supplies were usable. Pi investigated the V-150, and found that it was at least mostly workable, though partially covered in a cave-in. Marcus retrieved the food stores and Charlotte helped dig the V-150 out.
While the final digging was being completed Marcus determined that the trees planted above the bolthole had been alive 140-175 years. He also scouted the surrounding area via binoculars and found evidence of farm houses in the distance.
Once the vehicle was restarted and dug out, it was a short trip to the nearest farm. The farmstead showed evidence of vandalism, or at the very least severe neglect. The team approached cautiously. Charlotte was able to make contact with a man who spoke from inside the house antagonistically. Eventually he came to trust her, partially because no females are ever in the attacking parties. The family had just suffered an attack by Imps and were seen to physically by Marcus Meyerbos, while Charlotte St. Claire worked to help them emotionally and Pi Heinzen saw to salvaging some dinner.
Conversations with the Burkhardts
Pi Heinzen asks them about the IMPS: "We're just passing through, and I haven't heard of these 'Imps' before? What are they?"
Leo: Well, they kind of run the place. They take what they want.
Marcus Meyerbos: "What's safe to eat around here? I'm noticing some plants I haven't seen before. What's good and what's bad? "Any good places to trade?" , "What's out to the east?" , "How far out to the ocean?" , "What's the weather like this time of year?" , "How do these IMPS get around? How are they armed? Know where they keep themselves when they're not riding around?" , "You ever heard any other stories about odd folk in black coveralls (our uniforms)?" , "Are you and your wife originally from here? What about your parents? What's it like where they/you were originally from? Any interesting places you passed through?"
Leo: As far as I know there are a lot of good things to eat. We got corn and the wife brings back berries and such now and again. In town there are two trading posts, but the imps might take some tax if ya run into em. I dont know much of whats east or how far it is to the ocean, hell, we aint never been out of the area. Them imps dont like us being too mobile. Speakin of imps, they is the only people in uniforms I ever seed around. And the only ones with any guns.
Marcus Meyerbos: "How many of these Imps do you think there are?" , "What do their uniforms and badges look like?" , "What kind of guns do they usually have? Like hers (Pi's shotgun)? Or maybe more the size of mine?" , "How many usually travel around together?" , "To the wife: What kind of berries are the safe kind?"
Leo: Imps? There is probably 50 or 60 of them at any one time. They got green pants and shirts, and some wear helmets and others have those silly hats like you guys got. They have armbands with symbols and patches on their shirts. They got all kinds of guns, mostly like yours (Marcus). They stick to small groups, two or three, maybe as many as six.
<wife> shows you some jars with berries in them, you recognize mostly blackberries and huckleberries.
Marcus Meyerbos: "How many came to your place this last time?" , "How do they get around?" , I ask the wife to name the berries I can't identify and describe the plants they grow on. I also ask if there are any similar looking plants that aren't good to eat, and how to tell them apart.
Leo: There was 4 of them, and they gots a Jeep and some horses.
<wife> Those are salal berries.
She can also describe a host of plants you remember which reinforces your knowledge that the same plants are edible now as before.
Marcus Meyerbos: "Have you ever seen the Imps carrying any bigger guns or have things mounted on their Jeeps?" , "If we decided we wanted to do something about the Imps, do you know of other people in the area who wouldn't appreciate that?" (What was the rest of the family's names again? And what silly hat was Leo referring to a couple answers ago?)
Conversation Within the Team
Marcus: So, if there are 60 Imps out there with regular motorized transport and high-powered rifles, we need to think through any actions we're going to take. We can't just take out the few of them that pillaged the Burkhardts without prompting a more extreme response. I think we should do some scouting to see if they have anything bigger than rifles. If they do, we'll have to find a way to neutralize them first. If they don't, I think we can just ride the V-150 into town and start raising Cain by simply rolling over anything we want and using the 20mm cannon when we catch bunches of them together. Motorized vehicles being used means some form of fuel is being processed, which suggests some form of industry exists.
Conversations with the GM
I would like to bring up a couple of points that we should discuss.
Gear
The first is regarding equipment. Right now, the players have a wealth of equipment, and scarcity is no issue. This is partially because I didnt read the entire list of what is contained in the vehicle and also because I wanted to ensure the players were well armed enough to attempt what needs to be done in this scenario. My goal was to engineer the usage of much of the extra equipment during the scenario, however, this might seem contrived. If the players end up with large stores of really good stuff this changes the tone of the game, but does not necessarily break it.
Player Thoughts
How do you guys feel about this? Would you prefer a ret-con of some sort? Any ideas or input?
--Megami 17:04, 2 May 2012 (MST)I seem to recall there being hoopla about scrounging tables, but instead of a ret-con, how about reducing what kinds of things we'll be able to pick up from here on out to even things out? That way, there's a bit of the "what we have is what we have" sense of desperation.
--Madison 19:06, 2 May 2012 (MST) - I think its fine as long as we don't end up having all this abundance for very long so that we end up with a sense of desperation.
--Dieter the Bold 14:47, 4 May 2012 (MST) Expending things down to an acceptable level (whatever you feel that is) would be fine with me. It would certainly make for a bang to introduce ourselves to the new world with rampant explosions and destruction. I think it would be an interesting start to the campaign to have a larger than life reputation spreading out ahead of us that gets us into trouble.
Scrounging
Scrounging becomes less of an issue if the players have lots of stuff, but it still can be a fun and important part of the game to replenish perishable stores and find goods to trade to locals. Right now I am devising the last bits of the system for scrounging. Scrounging in its current form is basically a set of 1-4 dice rolls and will no longer be a mini-game.
Mechanics
Should higher scrounging skill lead to finding more items, or the same number of items, but of higher quality?
--Megami 17:04, 2 May 2012 (MST)I think this depends on the situation. If we come across another bolthole, then it's possible that there's a lot of stuff around. If it's just randomly in the woods, it's hard to imagine a pile of stuff laid out, but something of high quality is more fitting.
--Dieter the Bold 14:51, 4 May 2012 (MST) I like mini-games! But I'd agree with Rumi that it depends on the situation. If we come across a bolthole, maybe we'll find a few high-quality pieces or a load of mediocre pieces. And the completely random find can always be fun. Maybe a hunter slipped down a hill and broke his neck. So now there's this awesome TECH tangled up in a bush on some forgotten hillside.
--Jason 13:21, 6 May 2012 (MST) The key issue here is how you want scrounging as a skill to work. There are two possibilities, one is more successes finds more items, the other is more successes finds better items. Madison expressed that she believes better items is her choice.
--Dieter the Bold 20:31, 6 May 2012 (MST) Then I'd go with better items as well.
Legend Chips
We discussed briefly the way legend chips can be added to the pot in this game. One method is to defeat major villains, the other will be to advance your team goal in some major way that uses important skills from all of the characters.
Goals
What is the goal of the characters?
--Megami 17:04, 2 May 2012 (MST)This still kind of depends on how the world is going to shape up. Right now we're still just feeling around in the dark. We want to help people and know something went wrong, but don't have much info beyond that.
--Madison 19:07, 2 May 2012 (MST) -- My short term goal is to find out what went wrong.
--Jason 19:48, 2 May 2012 (MST) Maybe we can discuss it again after the first arc and you guys can see if a long term goal coalesces.
--Dieter the Bold 14:52, 4 May 2012 (MST) Yeah, all our characters are totally off their balance, and I think we'll have some better ideas of what we want once we can place ourselves in the overall world.
Supplemental Experience Idea
The man from Zongo proposed a good idea for possibly spicing things up a bit. He suggested I make an XP pot that would be a reward for the players when they figure out some big mystery, such as what the apocalypse was. Each session a chip would be removed, and also any time the players make an incorrect guess a chip is removed. This would supplement, not replace, the current experience and chip system.
Discussion
What do you think of this idea?
--Megami 17:04, 2 May 2012 (MST)I like the added spice, but am wary of the extra anxiety and frustration that may stem from it with a depleting pool. We've all determined that we're not the smartest bunch of players around who can figure shit out unless it's on a lucky call in the very beginning of the game.
--Madison 19:09, 2 May 2012 (MST) -- I like the idea of a supplemental pool, but I don't like the idea of it depleting every session. I think that would get really frustrating really fast. Not every session is going to give us the same number of clues, etc. Also, there needs to be a way of increasing the pot too - say, every clue we end up finding could increase the pot?
--Jason 19:46, 2 May 2012 (MST) The reason for the decrementing is to create a sense of timing. Remember, any of it is a bonus. It is outside of the normal experience everyone receives. It is a way to reward doing a good job. This is not set in stone. It is just an idea. Something like this will no get implemented if you guys are not interested.
--Dieter the Bold 14:54, 4 May 2012 (MST) Interesting, but not sure about it. Let's leave it off for now and let it mull around some more.
--Jason 13:19, 6 May 2012 (MST) For now this is tabled, but maybe if a situation warrants it later it will be considered.
Potential Retcon
I made a couple of calls during the game that I knew did not potentially jive with some canon things for Morrow Project, but I was ok with that at the time. The more I think about them, however, I think they should be changed to be different. In general, they are positive for the players, and they fit much more closely with my back story. Here they are, let me know if you have any problems with any of it.
The V-150 has a hydrogen powered mini fusion reactor, no gasoline or diesel is necessary. It has enough fuel for 18 months. What Pi did in the motor pool was flush the coolants and lubricants. The bolthole does have a diesel generator and 50 gallons of diesel.
The personal canteens of MP personnel are filtration units. There is a filtration unit in the V-150. Each member also has 100 water tabs for emergency and trade purposes.
When driving the vehicle toward the Burkhardt homestead it is clear that the GPS is not working.
--Dieter the Bold 20:31, 6 May 2012 (MST) Fine with me. But the V-150 needs to go out with a serious bang if it's this much more awesome!
