Where do we start?

This is only a very vague idea, based on chats about Raf and Cat and their 'daring escape' [circa]. I have not invested any effort in 'prepping' it, so don't feel obliged to do it if you are not all interested.

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In the final term [ref] Raf and Cat escape from a civil war after the government is weakened by a conspiracy Cat was involved in (right?).

Maybe there was a Navy Depot (D) Base (page 259) near where they were. Maybe Raf gained control codes for a Merchant Marine ship being stored there in mothball? He hears these Depots are seldom inventoried, so no one would notice one missing. Help would be need with financing the heist, and changing the registry to appear to be another ship (with its paper-trail and payments, to keep to the game rules). It might have a few fancy military features (extra turret was talked about?) for you to discover.

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Raf has some claim on a ship (25% from Benefits). Maybe these are the Control Codes granting 'ownership'?

Cat has some cash she can contribute (4 Ship Shares, worth about a million each, from Benefits). She is also (now) an Astrogator, and has contacts (or claims she does, to get off this planet?).

Ronny was a spy who 'went above and beyond the call of duty'. If we want him to have been involved, maybe he helped topple that government? Is that why he also needed to leave in a hurry or in an untracked way, and now needs to lay low? Or were his spy skills vital to the mission or stealing the ship? Or all of the above?

Lio was in the Navy, doing well, but left at this time. Was he (ever or now) stationed at that Depot, maybe doing Mechanic work on the mothballed ships? Did that help provide access to the facility and systems?

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If we are interested in this as a starter mission, we can say how we know each other --if at all-- in a way that 'justifies' our working together on this, and what our role was in the ship heist.

Was anyone else with you? Are you happy about having them along? Why and why?

Ronny also has a ship share.

I like the idea. It explains how we got together in a logical way. But more important, imo, is why we are staying together. How I'm reading it now is:
But I feel like, in such a situation, you'd split up and find your own way as soon as you got to safety.

I think it would help if there was a person leading the team. This can be an NPC or one of the PCs. We could give one of the PCs the Leadership skill for this.
Kinda like the Oceans 11 "I'm putting a team together".Would anyone want to take on the leader role?
Does anyone else have a good idea for our motivation to be a team?

We can turn that into a part of the reason you came along. Some of the control codes are yours to command. Ship Shares can be anything, so the knowledge of these access codes --or how to get them-- could be your 'Share', and something the others find valuable enough to include you.
Yes. That is why I am asking about how you already know each other, why you trust each other to do this heist together, and therefore why you stay together afterwards. It is better if the 'Shares' are something useful during the heist and not the reason someone came along.

Currently Ronny, Raf, and Cat all have a vested interest in the ship. So that can be the reason they stick with the ship afterwards? Maybe for Lio it is more about the people he has a connection to?
Raf is putting himself forward as the 'Captain', he has majority ownership of the ship. I think Raf also has Leadership 1 from his days commanding a team with Lio.

Of course what I have written above is my proposition, but I think it is very compatible with what VagueGM has written, set up us for some action, adds some time tension, but still leaves a lot of space for other PC to change the things. But if you don't like it. Feel free to change it:)I don't know if it is established but it seems to me that it could be interesting if Raf will not be sure if Cat was against or "with" the conspiracy? Had she her share in starting this civil war? Or was she more like an inside agent to hinder the conspiracy? How was it with Cat? And do Raf knows that?
I hope so. :) It makes sense in this scenerio. Being "hidden" for longer time in some forgotten hangar at the Depot... could allow it to have many different/strange futures.
I tried to incorporate this in my RP proposition. I wonder how involved Ronny was with the starting the war - probably we will get to know that someday. For now it really looks like he also have to get off the planet?
Raf is counting on that. How is it with Lio? @Airshark
"Was"? Or the "ship getting heist" is our first mission together? I provided some basic reasons. Hope that helps and others will agree.
I think for the heist and probably for the ship we need a "hacker guy" - to cover our traces of taking over the ship, probably even accessing it and later in some cybernating warfare and comms on the ship. Could be an interesting NPC. And maybe it will be the same guy that Ronny will "use" to transfer ship shares and get 2nd half of control codes back to us? Do you know someone like that Ronny? Or you got some hacking skills in the meantime(package skills?) @TheGenerator How do you see that guys?
That was really a good point! So my idea was - as I tried to incorporate this in my proposition - was that everyone will have to invest or risk something in the ship, so it would be harder to leave it after getting to safety. So at the beginning it could be simple will to have some returns fro your investments. And Lio - if that will be ok - seems to risk his navy career now... so there won't be "going back" for him.

Inspired by it, I put a way in my RP so that everyone have to provide something valuable(shares and/or risking the end of career) and their skill to the heist and ship. Hope that others will like this proposition.
I hope he will come along with Raf - like in the old days at the university... - and he seems to have some good reasons to end his career with a big BANG, don't he? :)
I posted a little demo of Raf being a leader, if others won't like it we can change that. Personally I think he is a good fit for the role:)

That's a bit too much to read and reply to at work 😅. Gonna check it out when I get back home this evening.

Maybe, but that is just money. It is the relationships that will really keep the crew together. But you did not bring these people together because of the money, so those relationships are the primary reason here anyway.
Again, remember, 'capital ships' are HUGE. There is probably only, like, one per system. I am not saying 'no', but you were much more likely to have been on Space Ships than Capital Ships. That is why I said earlier that you probably would not want Pilot: Capital Ships.

Maybe adjust your scale, what you are describing as Capital Ships are probably Spaceships? Maybe you are thinking of spaceships as being the size of a van? That is a Small Craft. 'Small Craft' are big enough to live in and make a home in (Inara's shuttle on Firefly, for instance). Not a big deal, just making sure we are using the same terms.
'Ship Share' are not transferable as money, they "cannot be redeemed as cash" (page 47). They don't actually exist in the game world, they are merely a Character Creation conceit to indicate that someone 'has a share of a ship'. If we want, Cat can transfer money she has to the captain for this, but I worry that that does not invest her in the ship itself, you just 'owe her money'.

It might be better if we can work out how she is connected to the ship, or the heist, or something and that is 'her share'. While it is only slightly different, the work you speak of later --getting the papers you need, using her contacts and Social Standing, and such-- might be a better illustration of her 'share', and might invest her more in the ongoing narrative.

Let's let @WhtKnt say how/what they contribute. Same for Ronny's 'share', and whether Lio is 'already at the Depot' or even still has proper access to it, or maybe is with you now, and involved in getting you all into the Depot.
Currently we, the players, have no idea. :)

Cat can tell us, when they want to. Cat can tell the other characters as well, but that does not need to be the truth. :)
I would hope you hope so. It was there by your request. :)
True. But we only know 'for sure' what 'was', what has happened so far before we start. :)

It sound like we are starting with the heist in action? So we only need to know why we are each involved, and what we think our Character can contribute. I will create challenges for you to overcome based on the suggested reasons you are each here. (Similar to the rules for Starting the Run in Yesterday's Tomorrow (v1.1 PDF)).
Lio has Computers 1, so he can install the new codes once you get them and get there. Your 'hacker guy' does not need to be physically present unless you want to take them with you when you leave, up to you guys.
I worry that we don't have to be on the ship to benefit from that return on investment. It is just money and we can leave and still receive those payments. Better if we have a reason other than money to stay together and money just drives what we do together. That is why we have Connections and know each other already.
Lio has left the Navy on good terms. Presumably this was not the reason? Up to Lio
He can still go back. (Though that will be complicated in the game:)

I like the setup Pedrop did to get us all together.
These are good points. So if we can just weave those bits out of Pedrop's initial setup, we should be good.

I think for Ronny, I can come at it from a different angle to get rid of the need for this ship share. Since he was a spy, it's likely that he was there to spy on these developments. But then sh*t hit the fan and somehow the people he was spying on are on to him. So he has to get out quickly, and with someone he knows won't turn him in. It just so happens that his old pal Raf needs help with getting off the planet as well. Well isn't that convenient...Now, since Ronny is obviously out of a job and possibly being hunted, he's going to need to stay out of sight for a while. I guess sticking with the ppl on the 'acquired' shop seems like a good idea. Maybe go by a different name for a while?

This way Ronny has a reason to stay.

As for the 'hackerman', I'm sure Ronny would have a favor to call in from someone of the sort. It can probably be done remotely as long as we plug in a wireless receiver into the ship somewhere.

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My next question: Does either Lio or Cat have a 'job' for us once we get out of here? Preferably some easy money. Maybe a cargo run of some sort. That would give them a reason to stay and at the same time offer a chance for the team to bond.

What do you guys think?

Though, this is an OOC thread for setting things up. So don't treat it as an RP post of 'things that happened'. Treat that more as an 'in character voiced example' of what could have happened. Nothing in there is canon, we will still need to see it in play before it becomes fact.
Depending on how things go, you may all need to go by different names for a bit. :)

We can assume you will get to change the ship's name in the registry after you get away, so if you have to make a big show with the ship on your way out, that need not paint a target on your back from the start.
Makes sense.
Absolutely. They can also tell someone like Lio how to do it, "suck down a script and pipe it into a shell" or something if they want to keep their procedure fairly secret.

Or Lio might know how to do it, but just need some valid codes.
If we want, we can say 'yes' but leave defining it till we get there and see what interests us.

You all still have some money. You can always engage in Speculative Trade, or just ferry cargo, mail, or people around for a bit, or even pick up mercenary work if that takes your fancy.
If we don't come up with a solid plan for what to do next and keep us together, we can just say that you need to get far enough away from 'here' before you are safe, so you are forced to spend that time together and form those bonds. But remember to rely on your existing Connections and relationships as a first choice if you can.
If we have ideas that we like more than what we had before, don't stress too much about the past. Unless it outright contradicts the mechanical events we have established, we can put together the story we like the most now.

That's true, but I still think it would be better to share a task other than 'running away' during that time.

Yes, it is good to use the same definitions:) The reason I called it that way was that I thought that at "Merchant Marine" they fly on the capital size ships. If not, that is not a problem. It was a Spaceship then. But to be clear. I always imagined it that when Raf was aa Merchant Marine career he was flying at ship that had at least 100-200 people on board(but could be even 1000). But after you explanation I presume it still is a Spaceship.

And good point with small crafts!
I saw it a little different: tossing quite a few millions to get the ship working/available for us to escape doesn't mean Raf owns her anything. He only shows her a way, an opportunity. We now have common ship - what is great. But if Cat(or others) ever want to get back the money(investment) now we have to use it together to make those money back. We are talking here about millions: luxury, peaceful life, safety on some remote sytem, retirement, keeping her social status and so... not buying some hod-dog:) And leaving the planet in this situation is as much business/necessity for Raf as for any other PCs - on the brink of the war. It is not only what Raf wants - everyone have a reason to get a ship, and by that unnoticed off the planet and then dangerous system.

But I have no problem with your interpretation:)
Of course it was only my proposition. If that doesn't resonate with others and you want to discard it(as usual it seems) - I'm fine with it. I will be just waiting for other ideas and will stop giving mine. No problem.

And of course I expected others PCs to change the beginning of the story to better fit their character and what they are doing and where.
Yes of course, just an idea, to maybe use.
Again: just an idea.

Yes, please whatever you feel will be good for the story - I just wanted to start us somehow and have some concrete text to work on. Also this RP took me quite some time(probably 1h) to write I must say... so I hope it will be not tossed into the bin entirely, but we can and should change it deeply:)
I like this approach - it fits perfectly to my proposition. Having a wanted spy on our team will be cool.

Let's do every tweak we need.

+1
My proposition is to "get moving". We can figure it out: the reason for staying together for longer in the OCC threads while we will be getting a/the ship. If - of course - loosing millions and having some powerful conspiracy/government on our backs is not enough for us to stay together and make up for these losses and before we achieve relative safety. Having only each other to truly trust for the time being... ;)

I hope @Airshark is still with us?

Unless... my RP(based on GM's ideas) is already discarded and we start in different way?

So could that be the task of: shrugging off the conspiracy from our backs that would chase us?

Or maybe we have to deliver someone to a certain place? Someone that is also running from the conspiracy/government of that system that started/is going to start the civil war? Or someone that have some information to end the war before it will fully began? Or after it will begin.

What other ideas do you all have for this?

Agreed. A shared task going forward would be better, though that would make more sense if it were born out of your already knowing and trusting each other, and that being why you got together here --motivated by the shared need, of course-- and why you made future plans together. The best reason to stay together is the Connections, that is why they are there.

One wonders why you all --with your Connections to each other-- were all on this planet/system together at this time. Were you a 'crew' before this escape? Did you come here on a job? Did that job involve the toppling of this government,or was that a mistake?

Fine if this was not the case and it was just opportunistic.
Also fine if we don't define this now and discover the truth later. Though it is worth at least thinking about now so we don't accidentally cut of such avenues for the story.

If you all want me to link this situation to a larger conspiracy that we discover later, I can do that too. If we do, feel free to admit later if you knew about, or were involved in, some of the stuff we learn about as we play.

1000 required Crew is definitely pushing towards Capital Ship size, but 1000 people (including passengers, cafeteria workers, marines, janitors, and such) can still be a large Spaceship. As a --weak-- point of reference, the book says you need 1 Medic for every 120 people, and 1 Stewart for every 100 Passengers, so 'hundreds' is a normal number.
Which can have its own dangers. Too much invested effort can leave us with a vested interest in keeping what we wrote --no one wants to delete their stuff:)-- but also often results in a narrowed focus that can overlook things like not stepping on each others' toes or taking away other players' agency. Let's rather try to avoid 'telling other players what they did'.

I know it can be frustrating when things are not moving as fast as we want. But sometimes a wall of text can slow everyone else down --"I can't read that now, I will leave it"-- and make it harder for others to know what to say if they feel their options are removed or their character is suddenly in a situation they had not envisaged or that does not fit their vision.

(Some breaks between paragraphs and especially between sections could have helped, too.)

Let's maybe slow this down till we hear from the others about how they want their characters to be involved at the start. Rushing the start can have deleterious effects on the rest of the game.

I tried to do it in such a way that the only thing I "decided"(more proposed - as I see it) for other PCs would be that they are in the same physical place - also by developing your provided ideas(!). I didn't "do" anything special for their PCs or made some a decision for them, did I? Raf only presented his plan how the things could come to life. As requested - I wanted it to be similar to - "Ocean 11 way" - probably it wasn't by that was my intention. I would not have a problem if Ronny would in the end decide not to come for the meeting or Cat, or them have different ideas to solve the situation and/or participate in the heist.

So leads me to conclusion that you simply didn't liked my RP and had different idea for this beginning. And that's also OK for me:) I will delete it in a minute in order - "not to tell others what to do". Also I'm going to switch to "reading mode" as it seams my propositions limit others, so I will withdraw from them. Please tell me - when we will be ready - how we start, what is the opening scene and if Raf is a pilot and/or captain or even we have this dreaded ship altogether. I will only react from now on.
That can be true. And especially the lack of paragraphs is also not helping, but I like to think that was to imitate Raf's rushed talking as he would be already chased by someone:)
Yes, of course, I just wanted to offer something concrete for further development. But it won't happen again.

Let's let them suggest the ways they might have provided something rather than 'putting in a way for them'. It can be uncomfortable to have to contradict what someone else has said --and can lead to hurt feelings like we seem to have now-- so often people just go along with it even if they would not have otherwise wanted to go that route. It can be very hard to tell if we might have had a better idea once the seed has been planted.
I am not sure if you want to discuss this. I really don't want to appear to be criticising if you would rather drop this conversation and take a breather.

It is a bit hard to speak about specifics after you deleted the post, but I recall 'dictating' phases like: "Ronny/Cat can provide ship shares" and "Lio really wants to change his life" and "Lio has some scores to settle with the Navy" and "Lio is currently at the Depot" and such. This is a lot of assumptions about the other PCs, and kinda paints them into a corner.

Presenting it as an RP and then forcing people to either agree or have to come out and say "I don't like that" is fairly different to discussing it with them in OOC and asking if they like those ideas for their characters.

We know you did not mean harm, and you were invited because of your enthusiasm. Suggestions are welcome, but just don't tell others what their character does.

Aside from that, your making calls and bringing the team together (Ocean's-style) was fine, we can pick up from there if we want. Raf can even ask the other PCs if they can contribute in the ways you mentioned... but let's first let the players suggest how they might like to see their character get involved (preferably in ways that are not simply about money).
Please continue to engage in discussion with the other players. But slow it down a bit and let them catch up or initiate ideas.
I did not comment at first, assuming this was just 'a rushed example of a proposal'. Going forward, it is better to be clear than to try to imitate a style or thought process --or worse, an accent-- using fancy text tricks. Clearly stating the facts and saying something like ' "..." Raf says in a rushed way' is much better than showing us the rushed way he is saying it and leaving the facts unclear.

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If you want to speak privately we can do that too.

OK, I read (almost) everything.
- Lio too has a ship share (for what it's worth)
That is fine by me. We could start the story right after Lio resigns from the navy.

I have a small problem with making him do illegal stuff. There has to be a reason why he would risk everything (carreer + social status) other than 'for the adventure'
So I'm thinking: he doesn't know they're actually stealing a ship, or there has to be a greater good. aka damsel in distress.
Another angle could be that he 'owes someone a favor' and had no other choice. But again... not great with background stuff and afraid it will put me into a corner later on in the story.
Lio's computer skills are mostly medically based, but basic stuff wouldn't be a problem. Just to say that I don't think he is the hacking type,... unless it's biohacking maybe :-D


Been going back and forth in this thread, and I hope I didn't misunderstand anything. Will also try to keep up with the current pace (but quietly hoping it will slow down just a little bit ;-) )

Usually I'm fine with whatever you all come up with, but stealing a ship and running off seems kinda wrong for a succesful (rescue) medic / physician. If anyone has a suggestion...

It is worth a lot. Mechanical it means you owe less on the ship payments (each month). In the fiction it might mean you have some vested interest in the ship, a reason to help take it, or a reason to stay with it, or nothing at all, this is up to you.
Can do. This is up to you and we can work with whatever you decide.

If you want --see 'veto' later-- it could be so much 'right after' that the paperwork has not gone through yet? But that might cause you official problems later, so maybe we don't explore that route.
This was only a suggestion about how we start. If you don't want to do this you are welcome to veto this idea and we can come up with something else. No harm done.
Those all have strong potential to break later when you discover what was going on, or have other choices, or are are done 'owing'. It might be best to find a reason for you to fully agree with the plan --even if you don't like it.

At least two of the others have the excuse that 'they have to get out of this system at any cost'. It would not hard to say that you are in the same boat. Maybe your Navy is loosing this Civil war, and, since you left them they have abandoned you? The 'enemy' know you were Navy and still hold a grudge.

Maybe this is an 'enemy Navy Depot', so you are not 'stealing from your friends' but from the enemy? It also makes the ship less familiar and more strange and quirky.
Easy to add such a thing... is it maybe Cat? Or should this be an NPC you need to escort somewhere? Maybe for medical reasons?
Indeed. You should still be good enough to follow instructions, but we can add an NPC hacker that you need to take with you.
'slow down' or just 'decrease in volume'? It can be hard to post after we fall behind, which makes us fall even further behind.
All good so far.
We can come up with 'reasons' if you --the player-- are happy to go this route. But if you don't want to push your character into this direction at the start we can scrap this and do something different.

We can arrange it such that no criminal liability attaches to Lio (or any of the Crew) from this desperate action.

I'm quite sure that my "feelings" weren't hurt:) I was just angry that you implied that I wanted to say what other should or are doing. As that wasn't certainly my intention. But intentions, aren't always clear I presume:) I think I just wanted to start the game and do the rest of planing in fiction and have some concretes to work with. But indeed it could be perceived in different way.

For the rest of your reasoning - I simply agree. It seems that RP was simply "too much for now".
Yeah. So deleting this post wasn't a bad idea it seams.
I did my breathing... and it indeed helped:)
I can post it elsewhere or send you if that would help with anything(I saved it, just in case) - but I don't think it will. Yes, there were such things as you mention. Those were my tries to "puzzle" all things that I thought were already established in logical way... but reading how you perceived them... some of them indeed sound like "crossing the border". But...

"Ronny/Cat can provide ship shares" - can, don't have to. A proposition dressed as plan.
"Lio has some scores to settle with the Navy" - it was based on the last event when Lio was promised promotion and didn't get it.
"Lio is currently at the Depot" - I explicitly said after that, we don't know that for sure and Raf thinks Lio could be there.

But... I understand your message:) No point to argue about single words now.
I don't have problem with people "don't liking my post" - good opportunity to improve for me with time. But that's true, that not everyone would be willing to say that openly. And that could be a hidden problem. Good catch and/or being experienced with the topic of you:)

I still don't think I told anyone what their characters should do. But I presume it's how my post was received, not written... so no point to discuss it any further.
To be honest I completely lost "heart" for that scenerio if it was so "dictatorship perceived" - as you are saying. So I hope others will come up with something else. If company needs a pilot or someone who know how to connect coffee machine to the power plant... Raf is looking for a job, I think...
I will slow down a lot.
Yes: it was also very late at night when I wrote that. Let's state it openly: that post had bad form - indeed.

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If you feel the need I'm always open for that, but don't know right now what else I could write.

I agree with all points made above (both by Pedrop and by vagueGM) ;)
Text can make it hard to see intentions and such. The conclusion I'm coming to from all this is that we all want to make it work. Which is great!

To be honest, I didn't mind the RP post that much. Even though there is something to be said about the way it came across, it served as a kind of summary of all previous posts (with Pedrop's vision of things). It was a big block of text though, as you both agreed :P
Could you maybe rewrite it as a list of events in bullet points? Then we can keep what we like, cut out parts we want to change and insert new bits until we get a starting situation everyone is happy with.

So something like
- Raf wants to leave because...
- Raf knows a ship that could be his ticket out
- Raf contacts Ronny to see if he can help
- Ronny is also looking for a way out, reason....

What do you think about that idea, vague?

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Speaking of changing things... If Lio really doesn't want to be on a stolen ship, any ideas on how we solve that?
Could it be a ship that we're allowed to take until we get a call to return it? Like somebody we know had it laying around and wasn't really using it.

Hmmm. The missing the promotion thing might be something to work with.


Gonna think about it.

Sure. If we think there is value in that.

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Simplest would just be to scrap that idea and start the game on a ship you own. Don't feel obliged to stick with this starting suggestion just because we have invested this amount of effort into it, we should not have some that till we had agreement from everyone (so it was only our own time we were wasting :).

The rest depends on what @Airshark would find acceptable for Lio. Maybe his Navy condone this, or even sent him to get it, but he can not do that as an active seaman, so he has to retire and find a spy and someone with contacts in a war-zone? Maybe this is why they did not promote him, to keep their support under the radar?
That's sorta what they imply about the 'free' Scout Ship, though I struggle to see why you would pay full repayment costs on such a ship if you might have to give it back at some point.

What If we stole the ship from 'a bad guy' a ship that is in the possession of the navy, but belonged to a criminal organization.

- A ship acquired by the Navy unrightfully
- Lio gets denied a promotion (again) and is pissed off: ''THAT'S IT, I QUIT!''
- someone else (PC) approaches Lio with the question: '' do you know of a ship nobody would miss if it got hmmm... lost''

Or is that too far fetched?

Quite doable... but it is a lot more complicated than it needs to be.

If you are stealing it from a criminal organisation there is no need to have the navy be involved, you can just take it from the crims.

If you want the navy to have the criminal ship then we can say it is in an impound lot rather than a Depot.

But you were in the navy, that means you used to fight the enemy and blow up their ships and kill their people, why not just steal a ship from the enemy? Your navy would not object to that, and would even congratulate you if you told your old friends.

Sure, though. If you want it to be your navy you are stealing from, we can say they took the ship unrightfully. Feel free to say how/if it is connected to your time in the navy or your lack of promotion, if you want.

The rest of it is... "hey, that's what I said." :)

Works for me :)

I thought we were taking a ship from the Navy Base. But it doesn't have to be.
I'll tweak the story why this is ok for Lio tomorrow.

Every kingdom has a navy, this is not your navy, it is the enemy navy (if we want it to be).

If this is ok for everyone. Works for me.

I also like the idea of the undercover special op.
This would give us a leader (could be homeplanet HQ)+ a reason to steal a specific ship + necessary resources to pull it off (the hacker)
Also we could have a goal for our first mission: return the ship.

Other option: the ship contains a hidden ''treasure'' . This doesn't have to be a thing of material value, maybe it's intel the navy wants. In this way, it might be possible to keep the ship after the first mission.

This is just something I was thinking about starting from your (vagueGM) idea how to work around Lio's conscience. If this stirs up the previous scenario to much. Ignore it 😁.

In short: Lio's on board with stealing a ship from a rival/criminal.

We can definitely say there is something on the ship that your navy wants. That you are sent in to get it for them.

This plan came about because we have a ship as the result of Raf's Benefits, so it is simplest if we get to keep the ship after your navy collect what they were after (saves us having to get another ship afterwards).

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We don't all have to share the same reason for doing the heist. Maybe Cat needs to flee this sector and this is her best route out; Raf has access to the codes to transfer control of a ship, and was planning on taking it anyway; and Ronny can have any reason, related to his spying and the situation with Cat or not, as we choose; and Lio uses those needs to worm his way into the team with the promise of some 'navy help in getting past the blockade' and a distraction?

Maybe Raf approaches Lio with the plan and he realises that it is an opportunity to get a MacGuffin his navy have been after for a while? We can work out the details if we like the framework.

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It sounds like we are bringing along an NPC hacker. You guys tell me if he is supplied by Lio's navy, or if you need to make contact with someone local.

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Are we also doing the 'damsel in distress' gambit? There are lots of people wanting to flee this civil war.

Damsel in distress was just me looking for a reason to push Lio into doing something he normally wouldn't. So for me, not necessary.

I'll give the others a chance to reply before the chunk of text gets to big. I'm speaking from experience 🤣

If you are all searching for a gentle way to tell me my idea sucks: don't worry 'bout hurting my feelings :-D

I'm good with Airshark's idea and vagueGM's additions to it. As mentioned before, Ronny can supply a hacker contact. It can be a remote person or an NPC we bring along. It might be good to have someone who can guard the ship while we're out doing things in town.

I think Pedrop's suggestion of how Raf is the one who gets the group together still works too.

As for how we get a ship and who we're getting/taking it from, that doesn't matter as much to Ronny. He just needs to get out. Preferably with people he can trust.

Excuse me... But "everyone is thinking your feelings will be hurt" role/job is already taken!

;) ;)
I'm very OK with your ideas.

I can be gentle while telling you your idea was fine, too? Can't I? :)

Cool. We can say that is what happened, unless we want it to be Lio's navy hacker, which is fine too. Say what you guys want. (We can intervue a few candidates if we want:)
Yep. Just say which you would each preffer.
That is true too. Is this another NPC you want us to create? If we want them to mainly be by the ship, we could maybe make an ex-military, with old injuries as an excuse to not wander far from the ship.
Yes, that still works.

Where? I did not mean to. The only places I see where that might be the case were questions starting with 'maybe'. What did I miss?

Laughed out loud. Really did!

I'm going to leave Cat's involvement with the conspiracy a mystery for now. I know the truth and I might reveal it to GM so they can weave it into the storyline, but as far as the other characters, they can think whatever they like. Cat would have given over her shares in exchange for being taken on as crew, but does not really explain her urgent need to leave the sector to anyone. She took a crash course in Astrogation and uses that and her Mechanic skill to find a role onboard. Her Recon skill is more focused, having had time to hone it in her past. She does not hide her Social Standing and will verify her status if anyone asks, but speaks little about her family.

As much as you want. Obviously the more we know the more we can bring it into the story. The other players have a role in that too, so share with them too when you feel it appropriate.

PbP stories take a long time to unfold, so 'waiting till later for a reveal' can often run into the problems of never getting there, or the big reveal falling flat, and that is assuming we don't run into the standard 'secret' problem of those events never coming into play at all because --not knowing better-- the story went in another direction.

Push for that story and we will trust that apparently-strange beats are due to things we don't yet know.
Cool. Can you tell us anything about the conspiracy and what happened, or is all we need to know that 'there is a civil war'? We don't need to know how you were involved or how it was your fault.

Drop me a Note with what I need for your story, but also tell the other players as much as you care to about your part in things, so they can bring up those events from their own perspective.

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Example note, you should be able to click on it to 'reply' in kind.

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You can also tell us what your character has told our characters, and we can try to keep those in-character reactions appropriate to that.
Presumably some of the others trust you, so that should be no problem for them. There are a lot of people leaving in a hurry.
I am sure that 'go-getter attitude' impressed whoever was bringing the crew together --presumably Raf. And that past friendships added to the Skills you could bring.
Can you tell us --possibly when it comes up in play-- about these verification processes? Is there a standard system, or is it different depending on who you are verifying for? Else I can make something up, when it comes up.

I think we have enough to get this started. I will read though what we have and work up some details.

We can finish working out how we know each other and finalising our Skills after we start if need be.

I'm all for a weird/interesting "hacker guy or gal that stays with a ship most of the time" NPC - would be very handy in many situations, not forcing anyone to stay on the ship as in many cases that would be most logical think to do.

Unless, of course Lio want's to be our Hacker :)

Don't worry! It was just a continuation of my joke aimed at Airshark - that "I'm the ONLY one who can has his feelings hurt in here!". So it could be a one sentence:
"I'm very OK with your ideas.... Even though you completely told me what my character will be doing... ;) But it is also OK:)"

Sorry, for confusion.
I'm really glad! :)

Don't think that fits the character

OK. Just making sure.
Cool. I can propose an option or two during the mission prep.

Some location name suggestions:
The galaxy: The Fossores Galaxy
The system: The Gem System
The planet: Ruby
The city: New Fiberville
The depot: The Olivia Wilson Depot ('Wilsons' for short)


With this, it would be easy to find new planet names if they're all named after gems. Maybe they also tell us something about the planet. Like Ruby has vast red sand deserts that give it a red look from space.

Side note: These are just suggestions, so if anyone wants to change some or all, that's totally fine. If there are no objections, we can lock them down :)

I like the idea that all the planets are named after gems! Very cool idea!

ty :)

Do we plan to spend much time in this system? There are probably only a half-dozen or so planets that anyone cares about, and you are not exactly welcome here after your actions.

If we want, we can extend the gem theme to all the systems in this 'kingdom' so you have more to play with.

But you also might want to think about how far you are running, and in which direction. I planned to ask the question towards the end of the heist --when we know how much trouble you are in-- and then we can define the easy route --maybe towards the core-- or the hard route --maybe towards the rim-- or whether you are running into the complete unknown.
Cool. So this is a largely 'desert planet' that we are on? I will avoid the cyberpunk/noir-rain that almost felt appropriate to our meeting, it felt equally Vegasy, anyway. :)

Hehe, I was thinking Vegasy as well. :)

I named the system galaxy after the latin word for "miners". So other systems could be a metal one or a gas one. Anything you can mine or drill for, I suppose :) Maybe even any element on the periodic table.

But the kingdom thing also works. Would that be a grouping of a few systems?

Though most think it is named for the wasps, which is probabaly why their ships are styled and panted that way. :)

We'll ignore the confusion of 'system' vs 'galaxy'. The game does not define 'galaxy', though I have thoughts about it given our diaspora, we can assume we are not leaving this galaxy under normal circumstances.

A 'System' is a 'solar-system', it has a star (sun) (could be twin or so on), and some Planets. Normally only a handful of these planets have any 'value', and even fewer have anything living on them full time.

Most have Gas Giant Planets that can be mined fro fuel even if they have nothing else.
Presumably.

If we want to keep the miner-originated names we can easily say the founders were a group of miners who settled here.

Almost every system mines their local resources. Asteroids and uninhabitable planets are fair game, and systems with multiple inhabited planets can have clashes over who 'owns' what mining rights on the objects in space.

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If you Jump to another system in the same 'kingdom' you might have a few years before they learn of your actions here. Jump Drives are rare enough that we can say that news needs to travel at the speed of light, and Systems are far away (even if a 'kingdom' might consist of relatively closer ones). Bad rolls may, of course, result in another ship jumping in with news, we don't want to make Jump Ships that rare.

If you Jump away from the 'kingdom' then your 'wanted status' here becomes much less important and fades into the background of the story. You guys can decide and change your minds later, too.

Oops, yes I did mean Galaxy, not System. Sorry about that :)

Did you? You sure? A galaxy is much bigger than the scale we will be working on. But, if that is what you meant, we can name this galaxy after these 'miners'. It has over 100,000,000 Stars and therefore star-Systems in it, so it is possible not everyone agrees on that name... or the latin language it is named in. :)

Oh I see what you mean now. We'd run out of things to call things if we theme a whole galaxy like that.

But then again, chances are we're not going to be talking about 99.9% of the systems in this galaxy. We could specify it as a kingdom, as you suggested.
Maybe a quadrant? I guess that would still be too big.

An advantage of 'kingdom' is that it does not need to have a particular size, it is an amorphous political boundary, and we can make it as big as we need.

I am not sure what a 'quadrant' is, it seems a bit hard to work with over multiple systems with their own suns† and therefore viewpoints. And, no matter you cut it, it might still be millions (or even trillions) of star-systems.

† I really want to stop calling them 'suns'. Can I call them 'stars' and have everyone know what I mean? ‡

‡ No, I am not going to stop calling it 'sunlight', though. We humans don't call it sollight, so 'sun' is a generic term for 'the star we orbit'.

Maybe we are talking here about "subsectors" like in Travaller "official" star maps. Example:
Spearhead Subsector
Online map

They "only" have like 10-20 system in them - so big enough for some "kingdom". That can always span to other subsectors too.

Will we have a map of our own subsector in this world? :D

Yes, Subsectors are a thing in Traveller. But I did not want to use that term since it is about artificial borders imposed by paper size...
Indeed. An appropriate size, but there could be more than one kingdom in a Subsector, and a kingdom might spill out of a Subsector. Kingdoms are also an artificial border, but they are an ingame one, and Subsectors are an out of game definition.

We are welcome to use the term 'Subsector', ingame, but different people may refer to such terms differently, maybe depending on their political affiliations.
We will draw it as we discover it. One of the first things that will end up on such a map would depend on which way you guys flee after your heist. This might set the stage for where on the page Ruby is, or even if you are moving to a different page.

I have nothing yet, we can make all systems and planets as we need them.

Yeah. I was using "subsector" more as size measurement. And personally I really like those traveller maps and divide for sectors and then subsectors. Doing them will really feel like discovering new universe...:D

I agree, I don't often use premade settings, but looking at travellermap.com really made me think about doing so for Traveller. But that is mainly because they a just so darn pretty.

I do worry that not having extensive maps could make speculative Trade hard to implement, but we can build out as much as we need when we need it.

Would these kingdoms also be controlled by a single faction? And have things like border patrols and border checks?

Well, this one has at least two factions, hence the civil war. Others will vary as well. We can work out the individual details together.
That would depend on many factors. Law Level would be a primary one, as would Tech Level, but there will be others, and if you use unconventional routes there will be ways to avoid such patrols and border checks (or to trade them for pirates, but that is the cost of doing such business:).