Current events
This page is for discussion of stuff related to the game coming up this week, no matter when that actually is. For instance, we can all assume Nate isnt coming for some lame reason and that Ed is sick of pizza and is bringing teriyaki or some other crap. They can post something here if that happens to be untrue.
Contents
Location
Date...........game.........Location
1/5/07......PA............BEN'S
1/12/07......WHFRP............Jason's
1/19/07......WHFRP............Bens
1/26/07......WHFRP..........Jason's
2/2/07.......Jin Dynasty......Ben's
2/9/07.......Jin Dynasty......Gabe's Bungalow
2/16/07......Jin Dynasty.........Jason's
2/23/07......Nephron One Shot..........ben's
3/2/07.......Toonball and random shit......Ben's
3/9/07.......Jin Dynasty......Gabe's Bungalow
3/16/07......Jin Dynasty......Gabe's house of gaming
3/23/07......Jin Dynasty......Matt's House of Tyranny
3/30/07......Exemplars........Gabe's
4/6/07.......Gemini Character Creation...Ben's Condo
4/13/07......Gemini........Gabe's
4/20/07......week off......nowhere in particular
4/27/07......Gemini.......ben's house
5/04/07......Gemini.......Gabe's
5/11/07......Gemini.......Ben's
5/18/07......Gemini.......Gabe's
5/25/07......Gemini.......Ben's
6/01/07......Gemini.......Gabe's
6/08/07..... CoC one shot.......Dieter's
6/15/17......Space Marines One shot........Dieter's
6/22/07......Gemini.......Jeremy's
6/29/07......Gemini.......Gabe's hut
7/6/07.......Gemini....Ben's house
7/13/07......Gemini....Gabe's
7/20/07......Gemini....Gabe's again!
Attendance and Food preference
--Ed: Scratch previous. will attend normally this week and next.
--Matts 11:24, 18 July 2007 (MDT)I'll be there, finally!
Gabe: Me too. Shall we have it at my place? If combat is gonna insue its time to break out the clicks!
Ben here: there's no guarantee for combat...maybe slightly raised chances, but I've been wrong about this before. When I say shit is gonna hit the fan, I mean in more of a global kind of sense. But I'm happy to play at Gabe's house, if you're offering, and the possibility for some death-dealing is certainly in the air.
--Gdaze 13:14, 18 July 2007 (MDT)Well either way I have a lot of plastic to represent us! And yus, my place will be fine although I think we will be up stairs again. And hopefully this time I won't fall ill again! That really sucked too because I fealt like we were getting a lot of good RPing in Friday night. My character most defently has some things to discuss with Matt's.
--Dieter the Bold 08:14, 19 July 2007 (MDT) Present. I can has pizza? Sorry to hear about things, Ben. What's the monthly rent on that place?
--Gdaze No pizza here although I will fork up some dough cause I forgot to last time. And sorry to hear about all that Ben. Hopefully things will work out.
Ranting and raving or other random comments
Ben here: on a completely unrelated topic, I think there is a very real chance that Heather may move out. This isn't certain either way, and I would say the details of the why and how are still hazy, so keep it to yourselves, at least until if/when it happens. The reason I'm putting this information here is the following: If she moves out I will either a.) have to find a new roommate or b.) move out myself. My first choice would be a new roommate, and my first choice of a new roommate would be one of you guys. I know this isn't an offer even in the realm of possibility for most of you, and likely to be uninteresting for the rest, but I just thought I'd put it up. If it isn't one of you guys, it'll be...somebody else, which may significantly curtail gaming at my place, but we'll jump off that bridge when/if we get to it. If I move out or a gamer moves in, of course, we can game at my place as often as we please.
--Ed: Oh, man. sorry to hear that.
Ben: in response to dieter, I expect that the rent will be around 600, with use of the parking space if you want it for free (I would assume dieter would not, but there it is).
Gabe: I need to remember to sign in but am leery to do so at work.
I hae a question for Matt, is there a reason we stoped play Warhammer Fantasy? I know the game was kinda winding down towards the end, but if you want to run a game and don't mind doing Warhammer again I'd like to keep play. With either a new or old character. Or was everyone kinda tired of it? Would there be interest in this? I liked all our characters even though I bitched.
Oh Ben, don't take it as I'm sick of the space game, I'm not! I was just thinking how I really enjoy the warhammer system. Although I would miss Hassan. The guy who took so many sucidal actions yet never lost one fate point! GAH!
--Ed: Ben, Sarah passed her exam! hurray!
I just heard! gratz to my guildmates...glad the curse on the Aderem lab's been lifted.
Other Nongaming Events
Dune BITCHES!!!!!
So Im almost done reading Dune, and since you jokers are playing in a space game I thought you might be interested in the following activity. I have purchased the David Lynch version of Dune, and the Sci Fi Channel Dune and Children of Dune miniseries'. My plan is to have a megaDune marathon some weekend day. Skippy got a new super huge HD widescreen tv, and it would be perfect for this event. Anyone who wishes to attend is invited. If interested, let me know what day would work best. Also, I got the Dune boardgame (won it, hasnt arrived yet), so I have included quite possibly the bestestest board game review EVAR!!1 [1]
Here is an explaination of the rules that clears up a thing or two and makes a lot more sense. I think we may have only been doing maybe one thing wrong. [2]
--Jason 13:57, 8 July 2007 (MST) Even better, free Dune game for everyone. All you need is a printer. [3]
--Edmiao 09:53, 9 July 2007 (MDT) nice.
The Next Step in Exemplars
The Next Step in Gemini
Also See Ship's Log for past conversations.
Aedil -- so what do we do about this catalyst? It seems like very dangerous cargo as it challenges the catalyst monopoly. I think we are being set up by the Helen.
Ules -- On the surface, there's two options: we get blown up by the Helen or we get blown up by the Monte Cristo. I don't like our odds against either.
I say we suss out who we're shipping this to, and whaddaya know, I've got some people on Glaucus that can help us out.
On a separate topic - I apologize for being drunk, but tell me this: Why the FUCK did we leave the sleipir sitting out there? A jump ship is lying abandoned, perhaps one of the most valuable finds in recent history, and we chicken the fuck out? It's worth so much money I'm going blind!
Aedil -- your plan of action sounds prudent Ules. Yes, I agree that we abandoned the Sleipnir prematurely. Unfortunately, Captain Gloval seemed eager to leave the ship be, and Orentes was quite afraid of it. I think the ship is not going anywhere, so a return visit could be in order.
Gloval -- Ules... put on some pants. Also we didn't leave empty handed. We took the egg device which I believe to be the heart of the ship or perhaps even contains all the data the ship ever had. I may get in contact with the corp office about this but we must be careful. Also I would like to go speak to some of the people in your psycho-navi club if possible. As for the cataylist, is there any way we can set these people on each other? I think I would rather team up with the Helen since they already have all the business with this cargo. It is time to take sides crew, we can't afford to keep being a free agent, that is very clear now.
Ules -- Captain, with due respect: I think there's an opportunity here to come out ahead of both parties, and we should investigate it. It would of course be more dangerous, but I think as a jump ship, we have a duty not to become pawns in others' games. We don't have the reputation of those other ships, but that doesn't mean we'll just do whatever they say. I'll see what Mike knows about it.
Also, we should check Cassandra again at some point; there could very well be a Catalyst vein somewhere there, and that information would be worth a fortune to someone.
Aedil With resepct, may i remind the captain of the "negotiation" tactics used by the Helen. These were to jump into our vicinity, establish missile lock and then demand that we do what they say. Hardly honorable company to keep.
Ules, I am also intrigured by the possibility of further exploration of Cassandra. One promising lead would be to find the AI site 20 location. I'm not sure how we can accomplish that, except to offer the AI corp the location of the Sleipnir in exchange for the location of site 20.
Gloval -- Oops, my mistake. Wait isn't Helen the one that already runs the stuff? And their "negotiation" tactic sounds a lot like ours in all honesty. All it means is they are careful planners. So is the Helen the one in charge of mining the chatalyst? (will always spell differently) If not, who is? I get so confused these days... Anyway, yes I agree Ules that we DO need to know more, please do talk to your gun running moocher psycho friend Mike. He at least owes us something. I have no intention of becoming a pawn Ules, but that doesn't mean we have to NOT allie ourselves. We make enemies but we make allies as well. Siding with someone could have huge benefits.
I know this restrains us. I don't like it anymore then you Ules. This ship, with us as a crew represents almost total freedom. We can do as we like and go where we like. I for one have fealt very liberated on this vessel, liberated from the politics and my past. But how long can we remain like this? I guess it is time for the crew to decide. Do we want to continue living this life style? In ancient history there was a breed of people called pirates. They lived free like us, not following any laws but their own. But they burned out very quickly. So do we live as we want, not following any rules but our own and burning out like laser fire (oh yes, sci fi simli!)? Or do allie ourselves with someone for protection? I will go along with either, but this is for the crew to decide.
- pats a part of the ship next to him* And please don't forget our most important crew member, the Golden Fleece herself. I know I haven't been showing her the respect she deserves. What kind of name do we want to make for her? One last word. If we are going to remain independent... we need to start working as a team. Our professional level will have to increase overnight. No more going out by oneself, no more doing deals on the side, for anyone. We have to become a lot closer of a family in order to survive.
Ules I want to make money just like you, richs and all of that. But in order to make that next big step, we have to grow as people so that we can protect our Golden Fleece. Think it over crew.
Personally... I would choose to not be chained down...
Aedil It is a strange day when Aedil of Vigrid educates the great Captain Gloval regarding interstellar rumor and politics. But the gods have made these days strange and they will be stranger still very soon, I feel. The Helen, form my understanding, is the pirate ship of jump ships. She berths in Tortuga, the pirate city, uses underhanded tactics and my gut tells me not to trust her captain. It is the Monte Cristo that holds the monopoly on mining and distributing catalyst. Thus it is my worry that the Helen is setting us up for a confrontation with the Monte Cristo.
Whatever course we take in the current matter, you are wise to name the Golden Fleece as one of our clan, and we must honor her name with our actions.
Ules -- Just because the Helen is called a "pirate ship" doesn't make its intentions less pure than the Monte Cristo's, or more accurately, mean that the Monte Cristo is honorable by comparison. Keeping a monopoly by threat is hardly an honorable action. If we look closely enough at the situation, a path that exalts us above those that would use us to their ends will arise, and we'd be wise to follow that path, however dangerous.
Gloval -- So Ules I am taking it your vote is to not be tied down to anyone? What do you think Aedil? I want to hear from the rest of the crew as well. If we are going to be independent that also means something else has to happen. No more threating each other. Aedil, I realize that many of us do not match your faith's strict guidelines. And I realize that Sammul might seem to not always have the best intentions. But has Sammul ever threatened the ship? Or any of us? Has he ever sold us out? Betrayed our intentions? I have never seen him do any of those. We all have sorted pasts. And Ules, no more holding the ship hostage by refusing to jump, least of all when a crew member is in danager. Everyone on this crew works hard to keep her running so that you can guide us anywhere. But don't forget they are almost all working for you and her in a way. Orenties... stop fucking with my robots... Unless you are the king snake in which case.... Please refrain from doing so but if you want to that is okay... Gloval... learn to take some risks... Now, are we in agreement then? That now we fly under our own flag?
--Edmiao 18:25, 19 July 2007 (MDT) On a previous note, I know little of the Monte Cristo, save they hold a monopoly and rumor has it are willing to go to great lengths to keep it. Thus we should take care around them as Ules suggests.
Captain, my allegance is with you and this ship. Thus far you and the rest of the crew have provent to be honorable friends and I expect we will continue to triumph and thrive. You are right that I have questioned Samuels judgement, and with our help and the help of the gods, I have not seen him fall from an honorable path. Ules makes a good point that great men need strong allies. But, I think we all agree that we have no desire for allies to whom we are beholden. Thus, I follow your call to maintain our independence, and add that we should continue to seek allies. We should ensure that those allies we make are honorable, like Mr. Phillipe. And it is our duty to uncover when a professed potential friend is dishonorable, which is why I went to great lengths to determine the contents of the Helen's package. It indeed revealed potential deception on their part.
--Dieter the Bold 22:39, 19 July 2007 (MDT) I declare Aedil a liar of the worst sort. He possesses more faces than low-rent whore performing for her bread and less honor than a mangy street dog. The chronology of events ran thusly: We left the Sleipnir and returned to Andromache 3 to speak with Stonewall. While there I repaired a broken down delivery shuttle and we were given the location of Aedil's previous mission. As he was tending to some graves, I received an offer for a $100k job and accepted. We jumped to Idomeneus 4 and prepared to head to the rendezvous coordinates when we were told a new set of coordinates. As the second set happened to be located within a cloaked (and I mean cloaked as only our sensors can detect) city, I panicked and declined to continue with the deal, figuring that since no money or goods had changed hands that it wouldn't be a big deal. Several hours later, the Helen jumps next to us and locks on with a missile. To avoid bloodshed, I talk Cpt. Sparrowhawk into letting me meet with a representative via docked shuttles. They explain that the cloaked city is Tortuga, legendary cloaked (and mobile) pirate city, and express general disgust at my lack of professionalism and backbone. Mistaken assumptions are again made as to my identity, despite my best efforts. I agree to continue the job, which consists of delivering a featureless black box about the size of two fists to Glauchus (which I was assured does not have any information as to the identity of the ship responsible for recent damages) to parties yet to be named, and then transporting another package to Cassandra. I am assured that all packages contain no slaves, drugs or explosives and can be easily fit in any shuttles (meaning we don't have to land anywhere we don't want to). I also secure an additional $20k, and everything upfront (that's right, we have $120k on a credstick right now). I return to the ship and we set off. Throughout this entire episode, Aedil has shown complete lack of interest in my concerns or dealings and was constantly pushing for a return to Diomedes in pursuit of other business. Immediately upon my return, however, he promptly took the box from me and demanded to scan it. I disabled the archeoscanner (fixable, Cpt. Gloval, no worries) and told Aedil not to make trouble with our new associates, who also possess a jump ship (and who refrained on destroying us solely out of respect for a sister jump-vessel). Aedil then proceeds to smash open the case and reveal the catalyst stone he had found and then sold. Now, I find it odd that Aedil has absolutely no interest in my dealings, fears and re-dealings up until I walk onboard with the box. And now he's suddenly all about the ship and comrades? He's also suddenly concerned about running afoul of Tetsuo Hara and the Monte Cristo, when he was quite willing to run around with the catalyst rock the first time and sell it to parties he still has yet to reveal back on Diomedes. And finally, despite the almost certain death-sentence he puts on my head (and possibly all of ours), he destroys the box (carrying something we honestly knew nothing about and could truthfully claim complete ignorance should Hara and the Monte Cristo become involved). We have now damaged property of the Helen and Cpt. Sparrowhawk and are knowingly trafficking in catalyst. So we now run the risk of angering two powerful and jump-capable individuals with vast resources (pirates v. money). We have taken on dangerous jobs before, and if the job I involved us in was more danger than you all were interested in, my apologies. But Aedil's actions may very well have doomed us all, and I'll not stand for his double-tongued talk of honor and camaraderie!! So, fellow travelers, there is the story laid out before you. I enjoy the luxuries afforded me by travel on the Golden Fleece and hope to continue traveling with all of you on it, but the Cpt. is right, choices must be made and new accords laid out. I'll not lend my skills to those who blithely endanger my life with so little care.
Aedil Orentes, were you in my presence and not speaking this over an intercom I would wring your scrawny neck for those insults! You are the most cowardly slime I have ever laid eyes upon. Yet you ignorance and lack of foresight led you to hand the trust of the Golden Fleece over to pirates. You accepted cargo that placed the entire crew in potentially grave peril without even asking what the contents were. What you do on your own time outside the ship is not our responsibility. But when you engage the Golden fleece in a venture, that becomes MY responsibility and that responsibility of the entire crew. You contracted our ship out to pirates. I sold the catalyst stone to associates of a trusted friend, Root. He is currently investigating how that same stone may have come into the hands of those pirate scum.
My actions doom us all? You have lost your wits with your courage. Look at the facts. You accepted unknown cargo; you knew not how dangerous it was. Now it proves extremely dangerous. You would have us spend our lives like ostrich, with our heads in the sand and holding out our hand for money while the butchers axe swings a lethal blow. You are like a child blind folded walking through a lake of fire. I asked you repeatedly to allow me to scan this box and you stubbornly clung to IGNORANCE as a SHIELD? Not even the most foolish children of the Vigrid Clan would be so silly to claim stupidity as an excuse.
You appologize for the danger of the job, when it was you yourself who shied away from the job as soon as it looked in the least bit perilous? You should instead appologize for your lack of will, your lack of heart, your lack of honor, and what of loyalty?
Talk about loyalty to the crew? Not once did I suggest that we should not pursue your rescue when your were kidnapped. In fact, I would not have rested until you, or your lifeless body, were returned to our care. I would do so for any crew member. As it turned out, the "kingsnake" (ha ha) needed no rescue. Could you say that you would tirelessly pursue the welfare of your friends? When I fell into a dark and deserted ship, even though there was no sign of danger, you left your lunch in the airlock, and left me to die. Have you no honor? Have you no sense of kinship? Look to Grachus for example, he has no fear and I have no worry that he would leave me in a cold vaccum to perish as you did. You say you grew up without family, so I tried to excuse your callous disregard for your kin in the past. NO MORE! Act like a man. You must remember that the crew are your family. Although you hate and disdain me, I am your BROTHER. Yes, sometimes we cannot chose our kin. we have travelled long together and despite your failings, I still call you brother. Even were you to sever the honor bond I owe to you, I would still forevermore call you brother. I will teach you to be a man and to learn the meaning of the word HONOR!
Ules -- Captain, I respectfully suggest that Orentes and Aedil be kept separate until such time as we are not threatened by two jump ships. The fact that we've already been paid for this mission puts us in deep-as-hell shit since we smashed the box, and having raving idealogues lobbying for position during the delicate work of extricating ourselves from these circumstances cuts our chances of survival considerably.
Also, if we're to deliver a package to Cassandra as part of the deal, then our bonanza of potential catalyst is basically kaput. My prediction is that we're taking the catalyst to representatives of Hara, so they can check it for authenticity, then taking some sort of testing suite back to Cassandra so they can either blow up the catalyst or isolate and monopolize it.
Finally, if any of you have any concern for the ship and its crew, at this point you'll put aside past differences, because we're currently balanced on the edge of a razor, and one person bitching too loud could mean all of our nuts. Now is not a time for principles or moral high ground, it's a time for us to do what needs to be done.
Gloval -- Ah... I blame myself for being indisposed as I should have handled the negotations myself. That being said, I don't see why you didn't let him scan the box Orentes. A scan is just a scan, I doubt it could have really hurt anything. Also Aedil... we have always gone along with your plans, even when they have generated almost not revenue for us. That being said you MUST STOP smashing cargo we transport. I enjoy running high cost item frieght quite a bit and we are not going to have that job much longer if you continue to smash everything we transport. Remember you are here mostly as protection and to dig, not be in charge of freight invistigation.
Orentes has been a bit off today. First frying my expensive robot and the freaking out over the dead ship. He is a mechanic. And while he may give to flight easily he keeps everything working, clean, and has almost never made any demands of me or the ship. If anything he has been the only one taking care of the Golden Fleece. He wanted to get her a new pretty coat of paint, he is the one who spends all of his time cleaning out the dust in her... hmm that sounds slighty wrong. Regardless, if any of us have always remembered that she is our most important crewmate it is him. Besides I have a project for him and Sola. Cut him some slack. We have some serious investigation to do on this object of transport and why we are being paid to do something they could easily do.
I wonder. Could we call back up the Helen and ask to know more? If they threaten us we could always contact the Monte whatever and tell them what the Helen is trying to do.
Aedil Captain, this is the first bit of cargo that i have intentionally damaged. I admit that when the fish spilled, i was slow in helping to restore them to the box as I looked around, but there was no harm done there; in fact I think that when Phillipes dockhand dropped the box off their loader, it was the gods who wanted us to know that Phillipe was a good man to be trusted. And we learned that. <<out of character; it would be metagaming to argue that Aedil was responsible for the fish spilling>> I agree that breaking the box was drastic, unfortunately with the crew disposed it was my only option <<out of character; ie that's what happens when you leave the technophile and the technophobe in charge of the entire ship>>. Orentes had not even asked what was in the box or how much danger it would put us in. As you say, my expertise are in archeology and combat and will try to refrain from freight transaction minutia, but in this case I felt the entire ship was threatened. Also, may I remind you that one of my expeditions netted the ship 100,000 credits in the form of this self same catalyst stone on Cassandra. You well know that archaeology is hit and miss. Further, if we wished, we could sell components and or the location of the Sleipnir for considerable money. It was the gods or their agents that sent me those coordinates. I would thus claim to not be a financial burden to the ship.
Gloval -- (Metagaming-He wasn't, absolve your GUILT! hahaha) Alright granted this is the only one you've smashed... but the cargo always seems to be under threat of smashing... Anyway, you didn't need to smash it open that second as Orentes has always followed my orders. Save for destorying robots. You could have waited until I was better to have me look into it. We really really can't be doing that to cargo. But it is done, and now we have to solve it. We could even make this work for our advantage.
<<Ed- out of character: we actually called it a night because of the impasse between Orentes and Aedil and no other PCs to mediate>>
<<Gabe - Haha, that'd be great if you both killed each other. We come up the the bridge and find Orentes with his head caved in and Aedil run through by the cleaning robot!!!>>
Separate Topic: GM lays down whoop ass
Ben here: Next session, I predict that all hell will break loose. This is about 50% player doing and 50% preset game event (an event I've been meaning to introduce for a few weeks, actually, but haven't had the opportunity). I don't mention this to make you giddy with excitement, but rather because I think that this could include large amounts of player frustration, possibly character deaths, and maybe even PvP or PK. So I just want to quickly speak to those things just in case they actually happen. There's a lot of freedom to do whatever in Gemini, but as I hope I've made clear, bad consequences can be the result of some of those things. I've tried to put a safety in place for this in the form of storytelling points, and you should expect to have to spend some permanent storytelling points during the course of the game (that's why you have them). As I've already discussed with Ed, when off the ship, a character may burn a permanent storytelling point in order to transfer a permanent point to another character (ie, Ed could burn 2 permanents in order to allow Gabe or Matt's characters to escape death, assuming they wanted to accept). Second, there has been significant crew conflict, and I don't think it's impossible that it could come to blows/gunfights/whatever between some of you. Again, I sort of anticipated that this might be part of the game, and I tried having the NPC crew members around as a safety, as well as the opportunity to introduce new NPCs (such as Braeus), although that hasn't been used much, and also people have not been very comfortable switching into the NPCs, so this trick didn't really work. Nevertheless, I had intended as part of the game the possibility that at some point, some crew members might no longer want to be in the crew/wanted in the crew by others, so if people go at it, so be it. The plan for resolving the aftermath of these sorts of conflicts are as follows. If you have a storytelling point to burn if you get PKed, you may burn it so that the character survives, but he/she will no longer be part of the crew: whatever survival mechanism that occurs will lead to the leaving/disappearing/whatever of that character. The character becomes an important NPC in the game world, and their plans/motivations/actions will be determined cooperatively between the GM and the former player of that character. The aggrieved player can now control crew NPCs, and meanwhile make a new character, which the GM will introduce as a neutral NPC...if the crew decides to hire him/her, that character is now on the crew, and can become a permanent character. Note that means that any backup character you make must have some reason why the crew would want to hire them, and some reason to actually be trusted by/trust the crew. I sincerely hope that we get little or no PvP and no PK. I also hope it doesn't explode the game if it does, but if it does, I guess it will be a learning experience.
--Ed: I would suggest that if a player kills another player, and dead player is storytelling revived, then one of the two players must leave the ship and which one is booted will depend on circumstances and how the rest of the crew responds to the conflict. say Asmodeus is hired to kill Samuel and does, Samuel burns storytelling to survive, but Asmodeus would most likely get the boot off ship while Samuel remains.
Ben: the reason I didn't set it up that way is to prevent sicilian style blood feuds: if the revived player comes back on board and the killer is around, chances are good that the aggrieved player will do at least a little metagaming to find a reason to counter attack: if the first attacker has less storytelling points (or none) there's no way for them to get away with what they've done. Although I see your reasoning, I don't plan to follow Ed's plan, particularly since it is predicated on the other players/characters knowing that PvP/PK is going on.
