Heist the Colours (OOC)

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Reference link to the table of Events during Character Creation.

I promised to offer you two hackers for your party, but forgot to do so in the RP. It would not have fitted there anyway, not till later.

Two that I have found are:

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Someone provided by Lio's navy. They know the details of what that navy is after with the ship and can ensure it gets there. Their loyalty is to their navy, though, so you can never be sure they are fully on your side. And they, presumably, would --as things stand-- have no reason to say with you after the completion of their mission (which may take a long time, both in game and out).

A local hacker from the planet you start on. They are agoraphobic (not liking large, open spaces) and unfamiliar with space travel (space is a very large, open space). They agree to help because they need to leave the sector. Then they will eventually agree to stay with the ship because it is familiar and enclosed. So far they have no ulterior motive.

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The first is Lio's contact. The second one can be brought into the party by any of you. Ronny implied he could get someone, so that could be the contact point for the second, or someone else could introduce them, decide amongst yourselves.

You are welcome to propose your own people, for this role or for others.

I'm for the local hacker from the planet we start on. I'm ok with Ronny introducing him. My addition to the idea: could it be that the hacker will bring some strange/uncommon animal with him? To bring it on the mission, probably it have to be a small one. Or he can pick up(or force us to pick up) it later - when we will have the ship under our control. I don't know why, but I'm thinking about "hamster"... but could it be "a different kind"? In the end we are in space on different planets. Maybe aliens are not know so far... but animals are surly more or less different. Don't they? Of course I'm open for different species, just my first thought.

:D

Where in time are we starting exactly? Are we on route to the ship? Are we already at the ship or at a meet-up place nearby?

@pedrop are you wanting to get a call from a player? If so, I'm happy to have Ronny call you. If not I'll put him at the same bar as if we planned to meet up there. Let me know what works for you.

My proposition - as I mentioned it in RP thread - is that the start of our adventure could be at just the moment when the military actions are taking their shape. Every one was feeling in their bones that something will happen, but only few knew what really will. I see it that way: we as group could be preparing our heist for the ship for a few weeks now. Maybe some of us(Cat?) knew that the planet/system is on the brink of the war? We were almost ready... but now we have to end our preparations even faster, as we are running out of time. It could haste the time before actual mission at the depot, and allow us with some flashbacks about our preparations during the heist - maybe a little "Blades in the dark" way/style? What you think guys?

So if all would agree that would mean that we all start at the very moment when the fist info about the war starts to propagate in the back streets, and many still don't believe it will really happen. That could provide us with fine opportunity of RPing what we were doing in that very moment - slowly preparing, but still leaving our "ordinary" lives - but now caught a little off guard as the thing we were preparing for... happened a little too soon. Nice way to introduce our characters in my opinion - even before they all will meet at the same physical place... in practice to leave for the mission at hand. What you all think?

Surely strange enough in my book ;-D
Please consider what I have written in my above post, but yes I was hoping for some call from a player. Preferably the one that will know and inform Raf (and maybe others at the bar), that... "IT HAS BEGUN!" - that was my initial vision of this very moment:) But we will see who will call and what will say. Initially I thought that Cat could be the one having such information, but Ronny being a spy - is as good candidate as she is.
To be honest somehow I feel that Ronny would be a good companion for Raf, late at bar, after long week of shady preparations... but I don't want to be accused of telling others what to do... again:) - so just shearing how I started to imagine your character.

So to sum it up: I'm hoping someone will inform Raf about "the revolution" by the call, hopefully there will be other PC with him at the bar, but if not it's not a problem, because the first thing (after getting the info) that Raf will do - will be trying to contact the rest of the team and set up some meeting and put the common plan in motion - unfortunately faster then we thought we would have to...

All of this: if others agree that we should start at the very moment when the war started for real?

In that case I'll leave it to WhtKnt and put Ronny in the bar with you ;)
I already had an idea for that, so works out well.

The local hacker can definitely have a inconvenient pet you have to pick up on the way.

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Pedrop: When you gender the hacker as 'he' is that deliberate, or is that a default, generic gender-neural 'he'?

Do we want the hacker to be male? Everyone should answer.

I tend to think about gender/sex last (if at all), so my NPCs tend to be 'they' till the players start defining them as something else. Feel free to add these sorts of defining details --like physical descriptions, personality quirks, gender, style, ...-- if they don't contradict what we have established.

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It looks like Cat already knows about the deteriorating situation? She can be the one to tell you about the sped-up time-frame.
Or (or and?) the phone call could be from Lio if he has learned about the war and increased urgency from his navy pals?
Or the call could be from the hacker --calling Raf because his contact Ronny is not carrying a trackable phone-- finally agreeing to your deal now that they have learned of the war and their need to get away?

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Pushing you into the action before you are ready is a good way to build some tension and explain random occurrences or weaknesses in the enemies' systems.

I'll work with whatever Pedrop picks

"inconvenient" - that was what I also envisioned:) Glad you see it similar.

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That was gender-neural 'he' for now. Didn't think about gender so far. I have proposed the pet, looking forward what others will add.

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That's what I also was going to write: Lio is as good to make a call as Ronny and Cat, being the one connected with navy. I like it: now the hacker have a good reason to leave with us.

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I see it very similar:)
Let's see if Lio wants to be the one calling or he has some other ideas. If in the end of the day it won't be any of PC calling, probably it will be the hacker guy or gal - to inform us, as he is naturally "closest" to the classified information sources - as VagueGM suggested.

From my perspective, it might be nice to have another female among the crew. It just looks better to the observers. :)

Damnit, lagging behind.
Hope the ship doesn't leave without me !

I'll hop on later today.

Cool. I was hesitant to push for that as I did not know if being the only girl was something you were hoping for.

Do you want the other girl to be the hacker, or someone else? If the (non-navy) hacker, do we want to change any personality quirks?

Let us know if you need us to move on without you. Then we can get busy on some of the tasks that need to be done before we meet up with you, on the way to the Depot.

Do you want the hacker to be your navy pal? [ref] If not, then we can deal with picking them up before getting to you (if we need to).

Oooh, if it's the hacker, can it be an ex-girlfriend of Ronny? Someone who's still on speaking terms with him, but there's some tension still around. Nothing detrimental, though. Could be fun to play out at times.

As a side note, will you play the ship's NPCs, vague, or can anyone add things that they do and say?

Fine by me. More drama. Let's see what the others say.
A combination of both. You guys can decide how much you want to control the NPCs, both in and out of dice rolls. I will pick up the slack.

I have run games where players take on the role of NPCs in scenes they are not directly in. But this is less useful in PbP where people are not sitting around watching others play, in PbP we can more easily run many scenes simultaneously. You are still welcome to stage side-scenes with a PC, and a player playing an NPC (or even with both players playing only NPCs).

We can also make 'sidekick' NPCs that the main character's player would have more control over.

Good for me. The hacker is not Lio's contact. The gender doesn't matter to me. I do find it confusing when 'they' is used. But that's just from a linguistics point of view.

I'm thinking of a way for Lio to know what's going on AND why he would call Raf. That Would imply that the team has been already formed (was it?)

An alternative idea is that Ronny or Raf proposes Lio as an addition to the team to the other. And what do you know, they both know the guy!

But if you want Lio to make the call, that's also fine, just need some more time to think it through.

Does that make sense?

Talking about "sidekicks"... will our ship have any AI on it? Raf could construct a drones for it(with time of course). Or could the hacker gal be somekind of genius that developed her own "flavor" of AI for the ship... maybe even not telling us initially, that she is going to install it on the ship's computer... ? :D Having ChatGPT in our world would make it even more interesting to have developing with time AI on our ship to explore in fiction word... Probably even with not-so-clear intentions... :D Raf would help make a drone (with time again) for "her" to allow it accompany us on some missions.
I'm talking about longer perspective, but if we are talking about sidekicks, that I could help RP - that would be so great for me and Raf...:)
Even more so it could be interesting when AI would be quite different in "personality" then the hacker gal that made her.... so they could be co-played with GM by different players.

Question to all: So it is ex-girlfriend of Ronny and his contact? I'm ok with that - of course.
My first idea, or more like scene that came to my mind was: Lio doing some no-so-complicated medical procedure on someone important from the planet's "elites". The guy or gal get the sudden call or someone comes in and after receiving the message s/he simply lives Lios office. Maybe s/he likes Lio and told him that is time to get off the planet. Or maybe Lio have "accidentally "overheard the conversation. Of course: just my ideas to share/develop.

I hope we are already formed as a team(that's the way a see it) and was preparing for a heist for a some time now... if not, there will be very little time to prepare anything.

Or... as I recalled just now, that Cat and Ronny don't know each other well it could be Raf who "puzzled" different contact together to make ship heist possible. Maybe: fixing some needed resources with Ronny, clearing some political way or fixing fake documents with Cat, asking Ronny about trusted hacker, calling some favors with Lio to better infiltrate or get some info about the Depot or something like that.

That would make "just getting to know each other right now" still possible AND having some preparations made during past weeks. Of course: IF others feel that we need that to make story logical.

Cool.
Once they have told us their preferred pronouns (i.e. we decide) I will try to use specific pronouns. But there is a good chance I will devolve to using 'they' by mistake, as it has been my defaultly-used pronoun for more than 30 years, and habits are a thing.
If you want, your navy's intelligence service can be working in this sector. They can let you know that the timetable has moved up.
That would be the simplest. It looks like the crew have been working on this for while, and expected it to take a few more weeks.
Sure. If you want, you can be a last minute addition, maybe due to the sped-up timetable? Decide amongst yourselves.

Sure. You could also have been working together for weeks and not have met yet. That could help with the 'we don't know each other, but sorta trust each other enough to set out on a simi-permanent ship trip together'.

I do not know. We can see what the landscape looks like. AI --as envisaged by sci-fi-- are always a tricky thing.
Setting an AI loose from its containment sounds like a very bad idea. There are probably laws against that. We can talk about it once we know what the situation is.
Might be. You will have to deal with that when it rises up.... um, comes up, I meant to say 'comes up'. :)
You have a library, that is presented very similar to ChatGPT-type stuff. We can work with that and see how it develops.
AI stands for 'Alien Intelligence'? No? 'Alien' as in, we can not come close to understanding what it wants. :)

Instead of a drone it could just be built into our comms, maybe? I'm envisioning it like Jarvis for Ironman. Is that what you had in mind, Pedrop?
Yes, that would be the same person. It makes sense that someone who he used to be very close to is the one he trusts with this hack. Breaking up doesn't necessarily break trust.

Yes, I think something like Jarvis. But to this be even more fun it could be very "stupid Jarvis" at the beginning when(as probably it should be after our initial heist, or not?) we will discover him/her/it. But it should develop with time. And drones could come latter... but indeed it could be also not the most "wise" idea - as VougeGM said - to provide it with drones... but we will see what will happen:)
Great for me.

I’m good with the hacker being Ron’s ex.

All, my father-in-law is in the ICU with heart trouble. Please forgive me if I miss a beat and if I am slowing things down too much, go ahead and bot me, please. I don’t know how long this will be, but I expect at least through the weekend.

Sorry to hear that, @WhtKnt. I hope he recovers well. Take your time

Me too

@pedrop. There is a 'poll' function for questions like these. Could come in handy.

Auch, not good.
No rush here, all the best for your father-in-law.

Going for a combination of Pedrop's and Vague's idea.
Hope it's ok for all of you. Lio will make the call to Raf.

Sorry to hear that @WhtKnt. We will work around you. Best wishes to your father-in-law and to you and your whole family.

Sounds good.

It sounds like the hacker is Ronny's ex.

@TheGenerator: Tell us about her. When was this? What was she like before? What is she like now? What is the most surprising thing that has changed? What does Ronny think caused this change? Oh, and maybe give her a name, and a online handle or two?

We can help with any of these once you have had your say.

It turned out to be quite the story, but if you don't want to read all of it, only the last post is important ;-)

I hope I didn't make any TL - anomalies. Still figuring out how 'futury' this future is. feel free to correct me.

Hehe. This city definitely has a old-timey vibe, but that is fine. Many places will be modelled after our world, and have 'modern' references.

One wonders what was showing on the dice in the cabby's mirror. :)

Are you going to post your arrival at the bar?

Good stuff, by the way.

Amazing RP Airshark! I read all of it - good read. I had this feeling for longer time now, but now I'm sure - seeing your RP, others RP and how GM is approaching this campaign: this game will be epic! :D I hope I will be able to keep up with you guys... Looking forward for more.

So Lio is coming to the bar?

I will make bigger comments/answers to all previous discussion topic at my evening or night(+12h or so) + probably add some RP continuation.

Yes he will come to the bar too. Figured this was our standard meeting place.

Don't expect all my posts to be this long though. Sometimes it just flows out.

Thank you all for the nice comments.

Yeah. We make do with the timing we have. :)

If we keep the time as it is, it must be almost morning. Should we fix it so it is somewhat earlier in the evening? Just so we don't have to go a couple of days without sleep.

Though I believe there are drugs to overcome such a disadvantage 😊😁

Or you could have had a late start, and only gotten up in the afternoon. I don't think we need to worry about it unless it becomes relevant.

Given that the timetable has just been shifted up, it is appropriate to the story that you might not be well rested as we start the unexpected mission.

The Fatigue rules are also interesting to bring into play. And Stims can counter Fatigue... until later.

😂
I'm going to send that line to my printer for some fresh prints!

Looks like a great RP start to me! :)
I imagine her as Abby from NCISSo let's call her Abby here as well. Goth girls still exist in this future, right? ;)
She's a cheerful, friendly person who has a passion for computers. I don't think she changed much since then. The reason for the break-up was probably Ronny's work. He was away too often and the relationship couldn't go on like that.

Her handle can be something like 'BunBun'.

If anyone has other ideas in mind, I don't mind changing things. These are just my first thoughts.

Lio has never seen Cat before. Though he does know about the team members.
So if someone could make the introduction that would be nice.

Or is this a wrong presumption?

Sounds good to me.

I think Raf will be good candidate for that - yesterday I didn't manage to sit and write in peace, so I will do the RP today.

Didn't mean to rush anybody.

Just making sure you were not waiting for me. 😊

My father-in-law passed away at 2:04 am this morning. I will be taking a few days to be with my wife during her time of grief and will return shortly. Thank you for understanding.

My condoleances. Take all the time you need.

So sorry to hear that, WhtKnt. My condolences as well.

Take all the time you need WhtKnt. Our thoughts go out to you and your family.

Let's get(/assume) Lio to the booth and seated with the others. Then we can deal with introductions.

We can also leave the introductions brief till have WhtKnt back with us. When they are back we can fill in anything they would have done.

Given the lack of objections (WhtKnt can still weigh in if we missed them) we can work on fleshing out this hacker a bit.

I made a thread for working on this. It may be overkill since I have abandoned much of the work.

I have a few more questions there that you all should weigh in on.

I thought everyone was sitting at/in? the booth already. I see now my last sentence didn't show that.

There is nothing stopping Lio from being there if you want. Just say so.

If you still want an introduction, that will probably happen as soon as you are with the others.

I guess the introductions were made when the team was formed. '' I know a guy who was a medic in the navy, he's a great surgeon blablablabla...''
So in my opinion everyone knows everyone's background (hearsay) but just didn't meet in person.
Just to say the introduction could be short.


I took a quick look at the NPC creation but didn't read all of it.
I don't know how much spare time you've got Vague, but for me it's ok if you don't go through the entire character creation process and just make something up.

I assume this would be, at most, "Oh, so you are Cat/Lio..." You know who you are working with.

Was Lio's coming here and meeting people in person a faux pas? Would it, ordinary, jeopardise the secrecy of the mission? Given that the waste matter has hit the thrust mechanism, that does not matter anymore.
What? Where? I did not actually find NPC creation rules, and remember that it used to be normal practice --for all RPGs-- to use PC creation rules for NPCs back then.
It has hardly 'spare time' since that is my job... but I spent a while on Sunday experimenting with options and putting things together.
I am definitely not going through the process any more. But am sorta trying to make someone who could have come out of the process, but just skipping the dice and the details.

Npc-creation: I meant the thread you started for Abby, not the rulebook 😁

No faux-pas, no secrecy on my behalf (but if someone likes this as an extra team feature we can play it that way. )

Your job is spare time? Or GM-ing is your job? The latter sounds interesting.

Airshark I thought that you would come to Raf first and together we will go to the booth, then indeed a short introduction "those are the ones I was telling you about and we were in secret contacts for a last few weeks" thing and then we will be at least together in one place physically and could exchange info that the war has started, and start to talk about things we have to do to start the heist as soon as possible - at least that was how I saw the possible outcome of a current situation. So if you agree just RP coming to Raf, and I will take us both to booth and RP "final introduction". Or take us both to booth yourself by your RP. Or something else:) Just telling what I was expecting to happen - that what for was the hand wave to Lio.

Ok! I'll do that tomorrow.

Liked your rp btw!

Drat! I was hoping you had found the section I missed. :)
I like the sound of that, but no. :)
Not that either.

Though I do sometimes get paid to GM, with a 'standard disclaimer' that "You can not pay me to run games for you. The money might help get you first dibs, but it is a game, and games are meant to be fun. If you make it unfun for anyone, you will be ousted, no matter how much you are paying". And I have needed to talk about booting someone who was, by that time, paying for everyone else, possibly due to their feelings of entitlement since they had started as 'paying for one of the players' and ended being the only one paying... Money makes everything complicated.

No, I was just saying that, "as a GM, making NPCs is my job".

Yeah, I had the same view as Pedrop has about what's going on right now. I think it's all fine and really fun to read so far :)
If anyone makes a 'mistake' don't worry about it. We'll just roll with whatever happens, as long as it doesn't seem impossible.

A bit of an introduction at the booth seems like a good idea. Even though Lio and Ronny already know each other. But we can stall a bit while we're waiting for WhtKnt to return.

Getting back to some older not resolved things... that I promised will go back to:)
Interesting... some kind of strange "virus" that slowly changes our innocent library-assistant into something more... ?
I thought it just wants... some bear and "peace of mind"? ;) ;)

We can do that. We don't need to think about it yet, we can first see what the universe feels like and if it fits.
Looking at the book (page 111), a Jarvis type interface is probably the 'Intelligent Interface', and the first thing that really feels like AI is 'Intellect' software. Intelligent Interface is TL11, and Intellect starts from TL12, so they are both outside our setting's TL.

Again, though, the book seems a bit stuck in the 1980s view of technology (reading Asimov these days is amusing when we see his intelligent robots (because they can 'talk'), but a computer is still the size of a building:).

Let's view the catalog of stuff in the book as suggestions and mainly what is commonly available in the general markets, rather than a hard cap on what we might be able to build or find out there in the nooks and crannies. We have already done some adjusting with Cybernetics (again, they have outdated view as our real world is getting some of that and are, at best, TL8).

I am declassifying these Notes so the others can follow along.
If it comes up, we can do something like that.
Likewise. Let's leave it out for now and see how it goes.
As there, it might be best to leave AI as a possible 'enemy' that we can discover later. I have some simple ideas about how we could bring that into play and engage with it as much or as little as we want.

So if that would be another thing that will be adjusted to our chosen TL... maybe it's time to consider together if we would like higher TL, rather than adjusting more and more things to the actual one?
I think the world "top" TL only means what is available "somewhere", it doesn't prevent us having different "mood"/technology availability in "most places" - as I think that was the reason for taking the current TL of 9? Mood/atmosphere of the world? No?

Cool for me:)

I've thought about this too. The only slight issue with this is that if somehow our TL10+ breaks down, we'd have to go to a planet with that TL to fix it.

It's not a huge problem, but an (unnecessary?) inconvenience.
I guess we could say only the big cities have TL 10-12? That might be a good way to do it. In that case, it wouldn't be very rare in terms of availability but still limited to certain locations. Is this what you meant as well?

Or part of fun? :) Almost a push your luck aspect... "you can take this amazing gear with you, no one is forcing you, but... if something will happen with it, there be some problems with fixing it".
Yeah, I think you have put it very nicely in practical terms. To be clear: rising a TL isn't something very important too me, but it can be simply easier to have it higher in some chosen places then adjust more and more items to actual one.

You could look at it that way too 😁

If everyone wants to change the TL, I don't mind. But remember that the 'mood' that was desired by setting that lower TL was one of more gritty and realistic sci-fi. The things that are causing problems are not really part of that mood. AI has no place in Firefly, for instance, and was not a thing in the original idea.

Adjusting the TL up does not deal with the wonkiness of the tables. If we set it at TL11 --as an example-- we run into the problem that we can get Cybernetics that increase DEX +1, but not Gun Combat +1. A DEX boost is better than a Gun boost, as it does other things as well as adding to Gun Combat in almost every way (except for maybe 'analysing bullet patterns (Gun Combat plus INT or EDU)' or 'impressing someone with gun knowledge (Gun Combat plus SOC)').

It is less that our TL is too low, and more that their TLs make little sense. We (at least I) have only needed to look at the TL tables for these two things, so I am pretty sure there will be other places where it makes just as little sense. We will have to adjust things no matter the setting TL.

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In those tables, the prices also don't make a lot of sense, but money in RPGs is always an issue --realistic money systems are boring-- and there is never really a problem making enough money to afford whatever we want, restricting availability is how you control access to stuff in RPGs. We were talking about Comms earlier, and they are ... Cr50! So, not a thing we need to worry about, it is going to cost you nearly KCr4 each month to maintain your ship and, like, KCr11 to fill the fuel tanks. You can by a cell-phone for each planet you land on without breaking a sweat.

More of a problem is that the prices, too, seem thumb-sucked. They are also inconsistent across the various books (not editions). I was looking at High Guard 2022 Update yesterday to work on the ship, and both High Guard and the Core book list the Free Trader, but at three different prices (MCr46.332, MCr45.792, MCr50.88), which are different to the price if we make it ourselves, or just add up the values on their table (MCr51.48).

All this says we should treat their tables as suggestion and guidelines.

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I don't actually disagree with AI being at higher TLs by the book. Unless we want to have them be a common/normal thing we are still good with mostly TL9 and TL10. There will be areas where you can get stuff of level or two higher, but it will be 'prototypes' (maybe using the books rules for prototypes, but maybe ignoring them, or at least the hard-rule for weight). Most ships will be considered high-tech in most places, so we don't need to adjust the TLs of the base ships (which seem 'made up'). You can't get your ship repaired at the local farmer's mechanic, you will need to find a suitable ship-yard, possibly based on the Starport in the sector.

At the set TL, your having a ship with Jump capabilities makes you special. They are rare. Probably not rare enough that that is what Lio's navy wants from this one (you don't want to lose your Jump Drive to them), but rare enough that you can solve many problems just by having it.

If there is an AI on the ship, that could be a reason they want it. You will then have to decide what you do about that when you find out.

We also can have/find a sector/kingdom that is doing AI. This could be a cause for concern, or salvation... or both. The TL is not evenly distributed, so there could be places that are much higher in some fields, and higher TL stuff is around, just not stable.

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Use the book as a guide for what is available, but ask if you want stuff that is listed higher, we can work out a plan.

The firefly type setting was indeed what we set out to achieve. But that was before WhtKnt and Pedrop joined. So I'm fine with reevaluating that. Personally, I don't have any problem with having an AI, but I also don't feel a need for it.

@Pedrop, what's the reason for your AI desire? Because if it's to communicate with the ship and have it do things for us (even remotely), that's already solved by having NPCs on the ship at all times.
If it's because you like the idea of it, then NPCs don't help there ;)
Does the +1 DEX add one 1 DEX or 1 DEX modifier? Cause if it's just a +1 to DEX, it would do nothing for my character for example. Having DEX 6 or 7 is pretty much the same, isn't it? So I would agree in that case that a +1 gun combat is better.

Oh, yes. You are probably right. I was interpreting the 'Dexterity' vs 'DEX' nomenclature as distinguishing between the Characteristic and the MOD (as is common in other games). Traveller does seem to use the terms 'Dexterity' and 'DEX' interchangeably, and 'DEX DM' for the mod (except for where they just imply it by using DEX (as with Gun Combat in the Skills section)).

So the DEX boost might not improve the modifier, so that bit of the table does make some sense. There are still other anomalies (the Shuttle in the Core book is TL12 (as are almost all ships), the same Shuttle in High Guard it is TL10... but still has a TL12 Power Plant, which is disallowed), so we should still treat the tables as guidelines.

I'm gonna be honest. The TL stuff is a bit out of my league.
I'm fine with whatever is decided. I don't have any specific wishes, I roll with what you guys/gals come up with 😊

:)

@Airshark I think it's your turn in the RP thread ;)

Airshark should also decide if Lio is the one to tell the rest about the change in plans/timetable, or if someone else knows about that (in which case he can add details or confirm things based on his recent incident).

Once y'all know you need to move: Where are you going first? To pick up the Hacker? To arrange transport? To collect anything you still need? Something else?

Ok, with me:)
I think right now I'm equally for:
- Firefly themes of "western in space, focused on characters relations leaving in ONE ship, sometimes struggling with much bigger powers that they are" (simplification, I know... ) AND
- Space Exploration themes of "we move in vast space, exploring new planets and worlds, discovering some anomalies, life forms and maybe even ancient artifacts(are they really left by humans? ;) ), freedom, fresh 'air' on every new planet and the amazement of discovery". This Space Exploration could go sometimes in the direction of Interstellar movie feel, if that excellent movie had fallowing parts/chapters. Still science, but amazing new worlds.

This is what excites me the most about Traveller "approach" right now, what I think it can provide us.

But if "Firefly" was the initial aim for this game - let's keep it this way. Maybe those exploration themes will come naturally, maybe not, we will see. I think it should come first, as it will be eventually much more fun to explore universe with the band of friends that is almost like a family(Firefly) and I'm as interested in social "conflicts" and frictions as in science and what technology can bring to us:)

About AI: I think my main reason was the desire to explore together this subject... as AI is apparently knocking to our door in our real world right now.... :) And the questions of that where "sentient" starts and ends could be not answered for some time going forward. And I'm interested in our relation to technology, what is to be human... RPG is one of those medium that could allow us to do that. And IMHO good sci-fi books(Stanisław Lem, Asimov, many others) where always fundamentally about those questions(what it mean to be a human?), only using the advanced technology to provide the right context for the discussion, thought processes.

Not forgetting the simple subjects of: what is the meaning of life and what is consciousness... ;) Just kidding, that would be probably to heavy and personal for the PbP RPG game :-)

So to make it more concrete: I envisioned introducing AI into "mostly Firefly themed world" as one of those anomalies. Something extraordinary, strange. And as it is always with AI in books and movies - it can provide us with different opportunities for directions in which the story could go then another (mere? ;) ) human on board. But we don't need it from the beginning. That's why I proposed for it to slowly develop with time.

Hope I managed to describe what were my reasons.

Yeah, @Airshark we are waiting to see how you will handle the situation.

You gave us so good RP, that we demand more! :)

Raf could take your character to the table, to have all of us finally in one palce, but I think it will be much better to leave you with setting the mood for this as informing us about the situation is important moment.

I presume we will answer the very important questions stated by GM in RP?

Tx for the poke.

Sorry for the delay

Raf can interact if you like.
Lio will tell what happened to him this night leaving out the military secrets.
Maybe we can skip to the part right after Lio told everyone at the booth what happened?

If you have time right now, lead the way please! As I would only be able to post at few or more hours from now.

thought I already did :-/ Do you mean something else?

I thought you will narrate the skipping the walk to the booth and that we are already there, at the booth - as you proposed. But it's not a problem. I will try to bring us there in a moment.

I left an open question in RP thread to allow everyone construct our plan on the fly together, and say what they will be responsible for. Or what we still need. Hope it is ok and no one was expecting anything more precise from me?

Cool. Everyone can fill in their bit.

And what is Raf's part in this or his next step? Making contact with 'Bob' to see if he is still available on your new timetable? Something else?

I intentionally made Raf part "not so significant" so far, to have room to engage/support with what other will say/introduce in the story. Or add another thing later - probably something connected to the ship codes. I think when the plan will be confirmed, he will call Bob to say it is "this evening". Raf made an agreement with him about week ago, to keep a free (time?) slot for them until 1 p.m. (13) each day. Let's hope he will be reliable enough... and there won't be a need to "explain" to him that this slot is indeed VERY needed... ;) ;) ;) Raf don't think so it will. But we are getting close to the moment when this will be only in our GM hands :))

Also I think it would be good to establish time table. This is how I see it now:
- it is a late evening right now, maybe not so late as I described it earlier, but more in the vain what Lio said: much after most ordinary people work time,
- Raf thinks that we should start all the action not later then next evening. So if others agree we have 24h before putting things in motion and departure.

Is this ok? How other see it?

Ah, I see. So kinda like TARS in interstellar? Who is basically a machine being talked to as a human.

The timeline seems good to me. Better than doing it 'right now'. That would make things extra difficult.

@vagueGM, do we need to do any rolls for the prep of this mission or is everything up to the point where we are about to get the ship successful by default? I'm not sure where the setup-up posts end and the 'game' begins ;)

VERY good example. But there are many others too:)

If you say so. The dice may have their own options. But your characters will find out about that as and when it becomes relevant to them. They may find they have less time if their dice are not on their side. But you will be able to deal with that if it happens.
We know you will get the ship in the end (or a ship). But everything up to that point is real play and will need rolls, where appropriate. These rolls will mainly dictate what it will cost you --and not necessarily money, it could cost (or build) reputations and such too-- rather than if you succeed or survive.

We can treat this as a sort of 'tutorial mission' since we already know you make it through and get a ship. Gives us a chance to exercise the mechanics as much as we want to.

I don't know how easy it is to accidentally die in Traveller, but I assume that the Characteristics being your Hit Points means you have quite a lot of warning before you go down. Guns do do a lot of damage though, and healing takes a long time, so avoiding injury is definitely best, but I don't see 'unexpected sudden death' being a thing, so we could, probably, assume you all also live long enough to make it to your assumed ship. At least that is how I prefer to run games, players should have a fair amount of control over when their characters die, it should seldom be a 'surprise'.

I indicated that you would change the ident codes on the ship after you get away from here. So, if you make a mess, you need not be stuck with 'wanted levels' from the start. We can do a clean slate after the 'tutorial', keeping only what we want.
The Game began as soon as Raf sat down at the bar. Don't all games begin with the characters meeting in a bar?

"Prep is play."

They always do... Those bastards! 😡
Alrighty :) Let the games... already have begun!

I hope I didn't create any anomalies in the story with my post.

As a side note, I really like the RP so far :) really feels like it could be the script of a movie.

It seemed spot on to me. No anomalies. :)

It is good stuff. We probably won't be able to keep up the same quality if we try to do too much 'planning and background' in RP. Include as much of the details you want in the RPs, but then we can always drop back to OOC to work out the nitty-gritty --your characters will already know a lot of them and merely have to adjust to the sped-up time-frame.

I don't know how much detail we want to go into --or see on-screen-- about what you do before you get together again tomorrow evening. You are free to play out as much of your action as you want, but a lot of that might boil down to a 'montage roll'. Let me know.

If I want to take some medical gear 'drugs/ stimm packs' with me. Should I buy them now, or when we need them?

That depends on where you are when you 'need them'. It seems wise to stock a 'basic first aid kit' that you have on-hand. Your character would have done so.

But, if you --the player-- don't want to have to look through the shopping lists right now (and prefer to do that in an emergency), you know that I am generous about your claiming "My character would have known to pick up < appropriate 'vaccine' > when we were passing through the Starport gift-shop", and we can just 'spend the money' and say we did it if it is reasonable, or roll in a flashback scene if there is doubt.

If there are things that you 'always have on-hand', then we can decide to not bother tracking them and just spend the money when you use them. PbtA-style consequences for 'bad rolls' could be that you 'run out'.

I remember now you said something likewise in my character creation. I'll check that again and maybe make a shopping list.

I don't recall specifically, but I say something likewise almost everywhere. :)
Glancing at page 114, it makes sense for you to get a Medikit (you might know where to get a TL10 one), and that might cover most of the incidental drugs or dressings you need in most situations.

It would also be reasonable for you to tell the others they need to chip in if they want you to carry enough things like Anti-Rad or Fast Drugs for everyone, just in case they need them. You might have a dose or two in your kit, but if the whole team is exposed, they might wish you had more right now. This is another one of those things that we can say would 'obviously have happened' when it comes up and our characters should have known better.

Lio will go home to get his computer. If possible I would like to upgrade the computer with a cybernatics software program. This will cost 25% extra per rating. Since a computer only costs 100Cr this is an inexpensive 'nice to have'
I picked cybernatics because it makes sense, and could help Ronny.
Can we say there was a TL10 medikit (Cr1500) at the blacksite where Lio operated on the officer? If that is to far fetched I'm also happy with a TL8 (Cr1000)
mobile comms, I guess everybody has one? they cost Cr150

Lio will ask in game what drugs everybody would like to have on board, just in case. These are listed on page 115. Or you all can ask for them without Lio starting that conversation.

Cool.

The 25% extra cost is for a Specialised Computer, it makes it better at running a particular type of Software (Abby has done so for the Computer she it bringing to make it better a Intrusion, since that is her function on this mission). It does not affect anything else (except the cost, which is small).

You will still need to buy the Software (page 111) which is a lot more expensive than the Computer.

I don't see 'cybernetics software' on the list. Do you see it somewhere? Else we can use what is in the book and create something appropriate. Depending on what you want to do with it, it might just be a Database?
Sure. Or even just that you have fairly high-tech Meds because you are military. Many of our medical innovations come out of the military (QuickClot is pretty amazing for general first aids kits these days), so --as with a lot of things-- the military (and black-market) might well have TL10 stuff while the general shops only have TL9.

Whether you normally carry such fancy Medikits or of you collected it from the blacksite is fluff, and you can fill in those details.

No matter what, deduct the costs out of your 'before play Cr10,000 allowance', or, if you don't take it from that 'before play' you can shop around and maybe get it cheaper, or maybe not.

There may also be chances to steal all sorts of things on your way out. If the unrest has hit the streets there may be looting. Everyone feel free to try stealing anything you want but can't afford. But I don't think that is something Lio would want to engage in at this stage, right?
A plain (voice) 'cell phone' cost Cr50, a 'smartphone' is Cr150. Take whatever you want.
A 'smartphone' has Computer/0, so presumably you could get a Specialised Computer version that can run Bandwidth 1 software of a particular type? We can talk about it if anyone wants to.
And, if any of you have 'special requirements' maybe you want to talk to Lio privately so he can cater for your addictions or allergies? Outside of the listed side-effects, I won't enforce anything like this unless we think it adds to the game, but you all are welcome to bring it into play as much or as little as you like.

Lio is also welcome to tell people to 'pay up' afterwards so he can restock anything he uses from his Kit. You can have that conversation then, and it might not matter if you are raking in the Credits.

Does Abby have any special medical requirements we need to take into account? Anyone should answer.
If we don't think it will be worth playing out, we can always just list things here in OOC, as and when they occur to us.

If you were going straight into the action this late in the day I would have suggested taking Stims with you, but, since you are are leaving tomorrow, you can (try) arrange to be well rested and avoid the need for such.

I can not promise, but, until you get the Ship powered up and working, there may be some Radiation risk, so Anti-Rad might be a thing worth thinking about taking with you. Lio might want to suggest that, or just add a bunch to his Kit, he would know about this risk both from his Medical and his Navy backgrounds.

There should be TL8 VACC Suits on the ship, and they protect from 15 RADs, which might be enough. Lio may want to try use his contacts to get a Mil-spec TL10 VACC Suit to lessen his penalty for not being good with them. Later, he may also want to spend some time Training to get up to his Skill to VACC Suit 0 to remove the DM-2 while in a suit (unless it seldom comes up). Abby will also struggle with the VACC Suits, so she might appreciate having someone to learn with?

Not that I can think of.

I will also take a look at other gear I might want to bring. Ronny has some cash left as well.

Go for it.

Same for the planet, or city, or system, or sector.

---

Agreed. There needs to be some 'cost' for his help. An official looking order (with will 'cost' you time, energy, and risk in the RP) will make him think he is doing official work and not expect anything from you. The less official the work-order --or the team-- looks the greater the chance that he will get suspicious and need something to keep his mouth shut, but we can deal with that if it comes up.

Lio can pose as a sales person trying to get the contract for installing a new first aid/hospital/medbay facility in the depot. If he gets the contract it would give him and his 'team' access + the opportunity to take a bunch of stuff with them.

Could do.

Might that even give the excuse for taking the ship out of the yard? If so, then the bulk of the job might be navigating bureaucracies to get that authorisation rather than navigating the ship away from the 'guards and lasers'.

This can be whatever sort of mission you guys choose.

I was thinking more of a construction job in the building, think it would be a lot harder to get a job working on exactly the right ship.

True. So this only gets you into the Depot, you need another plan to get out.

Lio: "Hey guys, I gotta move this ship to make room for some materials." :P

Especially not if you are going to see her to talk in person. We can assume that gets arranged.

When does that happen?
And who all goes? It is risky to meet everyone else in one's team for the first time just as a job starts.

Let's assume we all know our roles and have agreed as a team what we are doing.

Decide when we are meeting with Abby and who is going to that meeting and we can pick up from that scene. Anyone not there can tell us what they are doing when time permits.

I wasn't planning on doing that part either.

My idea was that we all split up after our conversation at the bar. Everyone goes off to do what they need to and we get a summary of the events leading up to when we meet up again at Bob's or something. Just to speed things along a bit ;)

Can do. Or, if you want to speed things up maximally, you can all go to Abby, and then I can insert events that kick you into action sooner than you planned. Just say the word.

That sounds like instant chaos. I'd be happier if the chaos started during the actual heist. 😅

Fair enough, though, from my viewpoint, the heist already started as soon as you arrived at the bar.

If you all want another day to get ready, that is fine, if you all want to jump to that point, that is fine, if you all want to be forced to act tonight, that is fine, (or we can let dice decide, but why, if there is a chance it will not be what you all want to do).

I have envisioned it very similar: we plan and say what we are going to do before and during the heist in fiction/RP; go for eventual "shopping" for needed gear - probably OOC; meeting at the first step.

Raf will try to bring the discussion to the conclusions. So far - I think - we have established:
- Bob and his smaller ship is taking us to the depot,
- Airshark is specifies the working order that we have to have in order to even get to the Depot and then get near the ship
- Cat have the codes,
- Ronny has fixed the hacker for us,

What else we have to establish and/or get for our character before the mission?

Knowing what work order - what kind - it will be we could prepare some gear for the heist and probably some disguise? Do we have plans for the Depot? Know were the ship is located? Should we care already how we will fly it out of the hangar? Probably not - in order not to prolong aur planing, and if needed we could do the preparations as flashback?

Anything else?

Somehow I'm not good with names. So I welcome others to state those:)I like this idea, can bring many opportunities. Can you precise it some more? Maybe even in RP?

It's a Gig, thank you very much, call it by name. :)
That should be enough.
Go into as much detail as you all want. We can assume you arranged to look vaguely official enough to pass inspection, but we may need to consult the dice when the time comes. If it passes, we don't really care too much about the details, if it does not pass muster you may need to come up with details so they can be explained away. Coming up with details might allow you to do some Linked Rolls, but again, we don't need to go into more detail than you want to.
Let's say 'good enough'. Your transport-pilot should be able to consult a registry and find where the ship is (meant to be) from a tracking number or something. That does not sound like a particularly fun bit to play out, so, baring complications, we can probably assume it happens?
Agreed. Once it is powered up, your Pilot PC will make Pilot Checks, which should take care of the 'flying' part.

You do need to think about how you plan to be allowed to take it out, or if you plan to sneak it out, or have a distraction, and so on.
I am picturing the Depot as less of a hangar than a region of space with spaceships laid out in orbit, probably around a Gas Giant Planet that serves as a fuel-source.

We can add a 'hangar' building if you want, but keeping them in the vacuum of space should be enough.
To a certain extent. That can make it hard to get started, though. So I may make things happen as part of the meeting up with Rob, but that depends on what you all come up with in your intervening actions.

Names are hard. Unless we plan to come back here we don't really care too much about coming up with good names for this place. We will probably need to refer to it later, and calling it 'that place where we stole that ship' is a bit of an incriminating mouthful, but a random designation is all we really care about. Abby will probably have a 'local name', since it was her home. If no one else comes up with something, I will look for a random name generator and roll something up.

I say we stick with what's already been established in RP. We have less than 24 hours to set up all the pieces of our plan and be ready to execute the heist.

That makes it urgent but not chaotic.
For the depot, maybe it's just named after a prominent historical figure. Like "The Olivia Wilson Depot". We can call it "Wilson's" for short. We don't have to specify who that was. Our characters might not even know, but maybe it'll come up at some point?

Sounds good. Why not say that the The Olivia Wilson Depot is named after the The Olivia Wilson System, and that we are currently on 'Wilson's 3' (sometimes called 'Wilsons' 3' or 'Wilsons 3' but almost never 'Wilson 3' for some reason that you think may be superstition), though maybe some of the locals have a more prosaic name for the planet?

😵

Would you like Lio to make a phonecall to his contact at the depot and tell them that the planning for the 'renovation' has moved up?
Maybe add a Cha-roll (that could go horribly wrong)

Or he can sell it as a '' lucky you! One of my build sites got delayed so I lobbied with the boss to get Wilsons' 3 you moved up in the planning. We can start tomorrow!''

Can we please not call everything 'Wilson' or 'Wilsons'? Every time I'm going to wonder if the person actually meant the thing they said or if they made a mistake.

For example:
You used the Planet name, suggested by vague. Was that what you wanted to use? Or did you mean the Depot?

Yep I made a mistake.

Names are hard. :)

I think this is a good idea.
Yup 😅
I'll try to come up with some in one of the setup threads.
If anyone else has ideas, go for it.

I'm not sure if you were all waiting for me to write something.
In my experience it is not necessary to give everybody 'a turn'

If this wasn't the case... nevermind ;-)

'Cha Rolls' in this game are really hard to succeed at. :)

We can save the roll till it becomes relevant and has direct impact on the story, then we can roll it and immediately deal with the results. That way we know what is happening and what we are rolling for. The specifics of what Skills and Characteristics would apply will depend on the fiction of the roll. (Maybe SOC, INT, or EDU, and maybe Admin, Broker, Carouse, Deception, Persuade, Streetwise, or even Profession.)

Indeed. Please don't wait for others to post if you have something that is relevant. It we ever need to slow someone down and wait we will deal with that when it happens. People can always post "before that happened I did ..."

In 'Combat' there is an 'Initiative' system, that expects us to 'take turns' but that can be a pain in PbP. We will work out how to deal with that when we see how it works, there are usually ways to streamline Combat/Initiative in PbP.

What's the plan? It sounds like Ronny is going alone to see Abby? What do you hope to achieve with that scene?

We can either assume you are bringing all your personal possessions with you right now (things like incidentals like clothes and such, and 'trinkets' like Raf's Antique Rifle) or that you pick them up at a safe rendezvous later. If you are taking your stuff now, we can assume you arrange to have it packaged (and marked as 'parts') and sent to Bob for loading so it is ready when you get there, or that you arrive and arrange loaders, or whatever. You will almost definitely still need to load the last minute stuff.
If you want to find such things there, say so (a any point), and we can come up with the relevant rolls.
Hey! You trying to manipulate me?! :)
@WhtKnt: How do you feel about Abby being a bit prickly with Cat at the start? You can work on developing a relationship (plenty of time on the ship), but we can --if you want-- start a bit rocky. What say you?

What is everyone doing between now and when you get back together tomorrow 'before evening'?

What time are you planning to leave? It will not matter to anyone else, since 'local time' is not important when you are leaving the area ... and going to another planet.

I'm good with Cat being a bit rocky to begin with. She is the outsider in this group. Cat will spend her time laying low, going to get her gear only just before leaving.

Yeah, I figured going alone would be best to speed things up. I don't really have a specific goal in mind. Just to persuade Abby to join us, even though her setup or planning may not be done yet. Nothing that wouldn't have been the case in what we've talked about before anyway.

If anyone wants to make an actual scene (with conversation) of this, I'm open to it.

If you wear lipstick, maybe Abby notices it on Ronny --from your kiss earlier-- and then recognises it as yours? Jealousy is a simple enough emotion and can be cleared up without undue trouble if we want to remove that element from play.
That is the simplest.

Though, ironically, just slowing things down. :)

We know --by narrative determinism-- that she will be ready (enough) to join you when the action starts, we have just moved that to tomorrow instead of tonight.
Again, I am not seeing why we are delaying. The political situation will just get worse as the hours pass. You had a head-start, and you are using that time to 'rest up'?

I don't mind if people want to do busy-work, but don't think that that will start you off in a better situation or anything. We can assume that you will get done whatever you have to get done to leave, mechanically it won't make a difference if you roll for your actions over the next day, or roll for your readiness and your action in the moment. Unless you are going to play out the actions --giving you opportunities to change your course, or to set up Task Chains or something-- you are just trading fictional 'time to prepare' for fictional 'time for things to get worse'. The situation will be different, but not better.

If you all want to do the heist tomorrow evening, and don't want to define and play out your actions between now and then, we can summarise what you do and move to the get-together tomorrow.

It would also be easy enough for you to find --as you leave the bar-- that the situation is progressing fast and that you need to act tonight. This will not have any effect on how 'ready' you are when the actions begins (but does provide you all a good excuse for when things go wrong later:).

Let me know what you want to do. I would like to get the action going by Tuesday (OOC) either way.

Is it okay that I left the meet up with Abby kinda vague? If I need to be more specific, let me know.

I went with the narrative of meeting up tomorrow evening for the heist, but if you like, vagueGM, you can make us move even before that. I'm fine either way.

Lio will get his medi-stuff and computer from his home.
Make an errant to his 'cool drugs' go to person to get anti-rad, stims,... (I'll make a list)
Call the depot contact (concierge maybe) to tell them they are in luck and his work party will start tomorrow. He makes sure they send the right documents. If you like me to call in game, no problem. If a roll is needed, I'll roll before the call and adjust the narrative. Of course there is a chance we're not getting in that way.

If there is time left he will try to rest until the evening.

I don't mind, I am just not sure why we are doing what we are doing, especially if we are not engaging with the roleplay. But that is up to you guys.

We are now pretty stuck with (in-game) tomorrow ('morning' --at least--) so I will give a few hours for everyone else to do anything, then maybe Ronny will be woken with a (optional) shopping list of things that Abby needs for her job.

I don't think that is needed? Unless you want to do anything special.
Depending on everything else that is happening at the moment you get there, we can see if a roll is/was needed.
We won't know what you need to roll till we establish the fiction of what you are doing, so let's leave this till we know the situation.
There will be plenty of time. Remember that you are going to different planet where the Depot is. So you will also have time to call/email while you are travelling. Time to rest and prepare, too.

See page 163 for a list of common Travel Times and Distances. We can say this is a 'nearby gas giant' so something between a Far Neighbor World of a Close Gas Giant? Depending on how many Gs you are wanting to take it will take somewhere between 'a few days' and 'nearly a week' of space travel to get there. Space is big.

It might also take a few hours to get to the spaceport, and an hour or so to get off-planet. 'Bob' --your pilot-- is a bit of a hot-rod, if he is driving you to the spaceport you can turn that 'nearly 3 hours' into 'less than 1 hour' if you are willing to risk drawing police attention, but that only matter if you are in a hurry to get off the planet, which does not seem like the case (as of yet) so we can ignore these details.

Oh man... On a different planet.

How did I miss such an important piece of the story. 😩

(No sarcasm, really didn't know)

In that case it is best of we go asap, travel slowly, get there in time.
Regroup at the pickup point?
____________


I just reread your post and there might be some important words missing.
Is the depot on a different planet? Or is there a ''than'' missing in the redt and are we fleeing to a different planet. (That I did know)

I will take the blame for that, I sorta expected us to do more/some planing and talking sooner in the process, and the rules for space travel and time and specific details that I did not want to overload you all with till they were relevant would have come up while working out how to get there.
A bit contradictory there? Given that it will take days --at least-- rushing now to save a few hours might not be wise.

Getting off the planet --were the civil war is happening-- may be more time sensitive, but the group seems to have decided to wait for tomorrow, so we will make that work.
I would like to get the PCs together as soon as possible, so we can work together. No one seems to be too motivated to do much RP on their own. Ronny might have a reason to bring us together in the story, and we can go from there.
No, no 'than'.
You are needing to get out out of the System, or even out of the 'kingdom' that rules this System. That is why you are taking a Jump capable Ship. After you take the ship you are not going to be too welcome by anyone who might recognise it.

The Ship is not on this planet.
Not 'on', no.

The Depot is full of (again, even if small) skyscraper sized ships, ships that don't enter atmosphere. It is a massive area of space near a gas giant planet (for fuel). I don't know (though your characters would know) if the Depot is shaped like rings around the planet, or if the ships are clumped together (or some other shape that is less practical).

It is a place for storing ships that are not currently in use (mothballed) but that have not been decommissioned yet.

---

I hope that is clearer. Are there any questions?

Got it. Really missed the part that the depot is not a location on the ground.
It all makes sense now 😁.

Assumptions all round. :)

I like the vacuum idea better. Especially for stealthy or rapid "departure":)
Yes, Raf's Antique Rifle is already on the Gig in the box labeled "Defibrillators" :D
That was reference to my personal believes IRL - as sometimes all is needed is good question at the right moment and listening long enough...

But could it be working here too.... ? ;-)
To be honest: I thought all this time that the Depot is at the orbit of the current planet, and it is more like a bigger, military space station... So Bob will bring us from the planet surface to the Depot/Station... so few hours max... but that only shows how different imagination we all have:) What is very good sign.

Of course I'm ok with how it is established right now - instead:) Let's get moving then:)

That could also fit with the facts, but it would mean you need to travel a long distance to get to the 'nearby gas giant' mentioned in the first RP post. You are clearly not on a gas giant planet (I, of course, did not know that during that first post:), so their fuel source is another planet.

If we want to change the timing on getting there, we can have the Depot be around Ruby, though then that asks the question: why is it not orbiting the gas giant fuel source? I don't know that we have time to explore that question now, but we might come back to it.

A less illogical option might be that this ship is not currently in the Depot, that some have been parked nearby for some reason, but that 'reason' will complicate your mission, possibly more than you want.

I can come up with ways to make any option work if you guys need me to.

Again, I apologise for letting this slide. I really should have reinforced it as soon as we established that we were on a planet that was not a gas giant.

We have this other option you mentioned in first RP post:
" The Depot has fuel."

So to connect all the things - I think - were said so far, my idea is this:
- the Depot is not on the planet orbit, but at one of its moons. Still taking a bigger area in space of groped together ships,
- mothballed ships are grouped in 4s and docked to "emergency fuel tank and moving ships - orbital module" that have some fuel prepared in the case of activating one or more mothballed ships,
- so we will get some fuel from it, but will it be enough to leave the system and make a jump? Or we will indeed need to go for the fuel distribution station near the gas giant? Or at its surface? I don't know:) Having Bob's Gig at this scenerio could be quite useful(maybe) as it has it's own fuel scoops...
- so the journey from the planet to the depot will be longer then to the orbit... but not so long as to go for the gas giant itself...
- or the moon could have some fuel capabilities itself?

Just my ideas that came to mind. But I'm equally good with your option Vague: Depot is at the Gas Giant.

Indeed. There is enough fuel by (near? in?) each ship to allow it to power up and to get to the main fuel source.
No, you need 20 Tons of fuel to Jump (page 157).
Yes, he can fuel himself up with them, but he only has 1 Ton Fuel Tanks, and his entire Craft can fit in your 21 Ton tanks, so his Scoops can not fuel your ship, you will need to take your ship to the fuel.
Those were the options presented in the initial brief. They also are the only really viable options given the rules.

Going to the gas giant will take time to get there. This is time after you have powered up the ship and started moving it, which may alert the authorities, so being near the gas giant is a benefit (time before you power up should not draw the same sort of attention).

Or, you can go to the fuel distribution station, but official fuel costs money and they expect to be paid. You could try to forge the paperwork to get that fuel put on someone's bill if you don't want to pay the Cr11,000 for refined fuel.

If you go to the fuel station or the gas giant it will take 1d Hours (page 156, 157) to fuel up once you start. People will start asking questions about what the ship is doing. That time can be spend in the Depot, or on the far side of the planet. The choice is yours.

The Depot has refined fuel, else you get unrefined fuel which adds a DM-2 to Jump Checks.

Once you have fuel you still really need to get to a 'Jump Point' (page 157), and that can take days as well (space is big). But you might not have the option of just travelling there, you might need to engage in a chase of some sort, or some hide and seek, or something to get away, it all depends on how well things go in the earlier parts of the heist. Or you can try to jump from close to the planet and take a DM-4 to the roll, though I would save that option for if you have to, but it is up to you if that is your first plan.
Not an easy option by the book. And it does not make sense to me for a Depot to try store fuel on a moon when they have a gas giant. Gas giants are the standard way everyone gets fuel. It is assumed most systems have gas giants --even if they have nothing else-- but we can retcon that out of the first post if you guys want to not have one. If the systems has a gas giant, there would have to be very good reasons for them not use it as their Depot.

Understood. He know that too.
Sure. No problem. Everyone feel free to bring it into your part of the story if it seems relevant or interesting.
The first that came to mind was Broker:

page66 says:

The Broker skill allows a Traveller to negotiate trades and arrange fair deals. It is heavily used when trading (see the Trade chapter).
* Negotiating a Deal: Average (8+) Broker check (1D hours, INT).
* Finding a Buyer: Average (8+) Broker check (1D hours, SOC).

But Persuade also covers 'haggling':

page70 says:

Persuade is a more casual, informal version of Diplomat. It covers fast talking, bargaining, wheedling and bluffing. It also covers bribery or intimidation.
* Bluffing Your Way Past a Guard: Opposed Persuade check (1D minutes, INT or SOC).
* Haggling in a Bazaar: Opposed Persuade check (1D minutes, INT or SOC).
* Intimidating a Thug: Opposed Persuade check (1D minutes, STR or SOC).
* Asking the Alien Space Princess to Marry You: Formidable (14+) Persuade check (1D x 10 minutes, SOC).

Since he is a friend that you are trying to persuade to 'be nice', rather than a pure business contact you are negotiating with, and given that it does not seem as long a full 'Negotiating a Deal (1D hours)', Persuade probably makes more sense.

Roll Persuade and INT.
Given that he is your friend, and that you are only talking him out of Cr500, and the other details, I would say it is an easier roll than Average. At least 'Routine (6+)', and I will accept arguments for 'Easy 4+'. Unless you massively mess up the roll, we will use the Effect to reduce the cost, even on a 'miss'.
If, after taking the Effect into account, you are still unhappy, you may be able to try another tack.
I find it best to narrate up until the point where things could go wrong, then roll, and then pick up in a new post after the outcome is known. So... exactly like you did here.
As you said, this already happened 'at the time negotiation took place'. So presumably it worked out and you came to an agreement (accepting the dice).

---

The whole team can work out who chips in what for what costs. You each have a fair bit of money. As with the fuel costs (you guys could pay it 10 times over), so long as you don't completely run out money, you don't need to worry about it too much. Abby is paying more for the specialised Software than you would for fuel, and she is not complaining. :)

@WhtKnt I did not post anything for Cat RP thread since you implied she was ready and there was nothing for her to do before things kick off. You are welcome to show us some of Cat's day, if you want.

Cat's day would be spent laying low and ensuring her stuff gets loaded on board.

If your stuff is larger than could reasonably fit in the car to the launchpad, with, at least, four other people, it might need to be delivered to the spaceport to be loaded onto Bob's Gig in the meantime. Raf has already done so with his valuables, you could have done the same. BunBun has not, so all her stuff still needs to be collected.

Cat's sheet is a bit sparse, so (unless you are bringing your Enemy with you) your stuff should not take up noticeable space. :)

By that I meant that this "emergency fuel tank orbital module" could have enough fuel for 4 ships... so by doing some overwriting in it... probably we could move all the fuel to our ship... and it might be just enough to have it enough for a jump. But let's leave it for now.

For the rest that you have written: I agree, probably the best position for Wilsons will be at the gas giant's orbit.

The fuel station is always an option. And I and Raf would prefer refined fuel for such important jump:)

But: we will have some fuel from "orbital module" - or wherever the ship will be initially docked. So we can take the rest from the giant gas itself - to stay low profile for as long as we can - and using onboard "Fuel Processors (20 tons/day)" we could process the amount we will be lacking. As it will be much less than 20 tones needed it will not take the whole day, will it?

That's sounds like a plan Raf could have for this:D

What others think? Do PC have estimations how much fuel could be available already on or near the ship - at the moment we will be activating it?

I also think it was the best choice in the situation:)
Routine felt just right for me.

Roll made: 7. Effect 1 - Average Success:)
She is a real team player I can see... ;)

Sure.

But I can offer a promise that a misjump won't end the game. It might put you in a completely new region of space, but that is an adventure in itself. I would prefer not to do that, as it invalidates your contacts and local knowledge till you can find a way back (or something), but that is the worst outcome I can see.
Indeed. There is some fuel near the ship, meant to get it powered up and to the rest of the fuel. There is fuel for more than just your ship, so you may be able to trick the system to give you the 'standby fuel' for other ships as well. If you sneak around and suckle at all the teats you might even be able to completely fill your ship before you power it up and make a run for it. This will still take time, but would be time before the 'unexpected powerup'. There are all sorts of options, each with their own risks.

- Buy fuel from the Depot. (very low risk)
- Trick the Depot into giving you fuel for free. (risk)
- Steal fuel from the Depot main tanks. (risk)
- 'Siphon' fuel from the other ships. (low risk, takes more time)
- Scoop fuel from the gas giant. (risk, takes time, extra time to refine)
- ??? (???:)
Yes, if you can get most/some of your fuel from a refined source you will need less time refining the fuel you scoop up. If most of your fuel is refined the Jump DM will be less (DM-1 if only half your fuel is unrefined?). We will calculate the DM when the time comes and you can make a decision if you want to keep refining or risk it. Remember, you can take your time on the Check to offset this negative, or the negative from being too close to a gravity well.
As you suggested, maybe four ships per module? With a weeks worth of fuel to get each working and to the gas giant? So 1 Ton at your 'orbital module' of which you are supposed to take a quarter? It should be easy enough to take the whole 1 Ton without raising any immediate alarms. If you want to ferry fuel from other modules you will either need to convince Bob to do it, or get a Craft of your own, or take your ship to neighbouring modules (which will definitely raise all sorts of alarms).

I probably should have read that before posting. I can change my post if need be. But it seems logical that you don't want to be caught hanging out together with your heist crew hours before it's happening.
I think Ronny would think of these 'risks' because of his spy experience.

Understood. But it also means we can't turn this into a proper roleplay without worrying about leaving the others with nothing to do. We can set this as 'at the time of the heist' instead of 'hours before' and make this the start?

If other people want to meet up with Ronny and Abby for the clandestine sale, we can turn it into a proper scene and take our time playing it.

We can easily say one or two of you 'bump into him on the subway' and then you decide to call the rest? The plan could be to get the software on your way out of the city?

If we are amenable to getting the team together, I can do that with Abby's reply to Ronny's message.

That works for me. :)

To be honest, I didn't think we'd have to RP the hours of the day of the heist. I thought Ronny would meet with Abby 'behind the scenes' and we'd then skip to the time of the heist. But I'm going with what's being offered ;) We'll make it work either way.

This is all part of the heist. Getting specialised hacking software for Ship's Computers is not an easy task. Getting out of a city in the nascent stages of a civil war is not easy. If this stuff is done right, the Ship part might be easy. :)

The RP started the moment you met in the bar.

IMHO it would be strange for 4 people to casually bump at the subway... only divine intervention would do for it. So I propose this alternative:

Something will go wrong with the sell... and Ronny will have to call "the gang" in. Maybe getting us know to be ready "just in case" in advance, so we could get there fast(especially having the crazy, but brilliant driver - Bob... ;) ). And that would be the last scene before going to the start port. In fact I think we should be going there straight from the "trading scene". Gun blazing maybe? Even? Having to leave Ruby even faster, then we thought at the bar? Being chased by some shady, hacking devices dealer and his grup?

I don't have a problem with waiting for Ronny leading the scene with Abby before the things will go sideways:) Raf will know how to spend this time:)

What you think guys?

But... my proposition is very similar to what you have established already... wasn't reading carefully enough. Sorry:) So the only change would be exchanging bumping at each other at the subway into something goes wrong with the sell:)
Nice list! I wonder what others thing about this? Or we will decide being at the ship? I have my favorites:)

But trivial for two of you to be together and bump into Ronny, and then call the other one. Or one and then call the other two.

But...
Yes, that was my proposal. Abby can send a message saying something is wrong and you need to come to her, then you all go there and the deal is done.
Even 'stranger' to have Bob be there to drive you. :)
Can do. But why? Why not just all arrange to get together? I honestly don't understand why we are hedging.
That would be my recomendation.
Unless the other players have some way to spend the time (with their characters) I don't see the point of running this scene with only TheGenerator. It will feel bad to let it stretch its legs and we will feel like we need to get it over with, so the others aren't waiting. Why are we wanting to do solo scenes?
Or, at least, having to leave Fiberville due to local unrest. It may not affect the planet, yet.

No worries. I repeated the options to make sure. That is par for the course with GMing. :)

Guess what... you are right... :) it's not a book, but a game... :) We can go straight to the selling meeting together - no point to prolong it with "getting to the meeting, after receiving the emergency message" - it won't add to much for the story. Now I understand:)

The question is not about getting there but about who is going and why we are not all going.

Who is not wanting to get together and go as a group to the dealer meeting? Everyone should answer.

Rafael + dealer meeting + his streetwise -> backstory = fish in the tank.

So I'm for it:)

But maybe Ronny had his reasons to not want us there... ? You know... spending some time with his ex completely alone... ;-P ;)

Haha :D It's a strictly professional meeting, I assure you! ;)

The crew can definitely show up. Ronny just thinks that traveling together as a group is too suspicious and easy to notice. He also thinks he can handle it without them. But if something goes wrong he'll definitely need help.
Agreed :)

Ronny also has Streetwise 2, so you can work together to tank these fish...?

You are completely right with the suspicious, unless... we will do it as the last thing before going to star port?
"Yeah... Ronny... like in the older times... when you were introducing me into 'circles'! And we were the best smugglers in the galaxy..."

(if I remember our backstories properly... ;) )

Sorry for my absence, unexpectedly busy week.
Tomorrow will be quieter.

Cool. I might just assume you don't object to getting the team together and push it through. Everyone can narrate their character and we won't mention them being there till they do, so if someone decides to be elsewhere or to join later we can accommodate that.

Lio will go to join Ronny After he gets his stuff and the necessary druggs

We can assume that happened earier?

Yes please

Cool, when you are done with the doctor Phill scene you can be arriving at Abby's with Ronny.

I actually wanted to make a reference to Pills ;-)

Phill's Pills?

Cat is good with attending the meeting, but will do so incognito.

Cool. I doubt many will be sharing names and such.

You joining them at Abby's?

Yes.

Clearly. :)

So, are we all meeting up at Abby's?

So far we have Ronny and Cat and a promise of Lio at Abby's. So we can assume are meeting there.

Rafael can insert himself into the scene when ready.

Insertion scene: done;) To the rescue with a Bob's truck! ;)

I'm counting on Bob's description - GM? - this time:)

As always: it's PbP, I like to be proactive, wanted to move things along, but if someone don't like my ideas and I took too much liberty, just say: and I will edit what is needed:)

Here's some inspiration form AI in our real world... :
"Certainly! Here's an example NPC description based on the B.A. Baracus character from the A-Team, but with a science fiction twist:

B.A. "The Beast" Baracus, former engineer and enforcer for the Intergalactic Syndicate, is a towering, heavily muscled humanoid with a cybernetic left arm that ends in a serrated energy blade. His shaved head and tattooed skin are a testament to his time spent in the prison colonies of Ganymede, where he earned his nickname "The Beast" for his fearsome reputation in the underground fighting pits.

Despite his rough exterior, B.A. has a keen intellect and a knack for engineering, often cobbling together makeshift weapons and gadgets from scavenged tech. He's fiercely loyal to those he considers his friends and allies, but has a hair-trigger temper that can be set off by any perceived slight.

In combat, B.A. prefers to get up close and personal, relying on his cybernetic arm and brute strength to pummel his opponents into submission. However, he's also skilled with a wide variety of weapons, including blasters, heavy pistols, and explosives, which he's not afraid to use to devastating effect.

B.A.'s ultimate goal is to one day take down the Intergalactic Syndicate and free himself from the debts he owes them, but for now he's content to take on whatever job will pay the bills and keep him and his crew flying through the stars."

And to be honest... no way I would done it better... :|

I love it when a plan comes together! ;)

Any objections to this pick-up, vague?
(I'll post a reply later today.)

Some might say 'rescue', others might say 'the GM placed a challenge to the party and you sidestepped it'. People are treating this like a training-mission, so I will let that slide, but don't let it become a habit.

I don't know what yet --this was out of the blue-- but, by the 'basic rules of RPGs', no solution should be without risks or consequences or costs. If you guys create 'free solutions' expect there to be 'costs down the line'.
Sure, but in future maybe don't move things so far along that the scene is suddenly solved and over?
Remember Don't Edit. We can if we have to, but don't post things that you expect will need to be edited, the flow of the story can get very confused as some people still remember scenes that did not happen anymore.

Unless someone was interested in the ethical dilemma or technical challenge of getting a vehicle, we can just skip that whole part and proceed with Bob's new van.
Wait? Does that mean you expect the GM to provide the description of the NPC? That was the plan.
I don't believe you. I am sure you would have come up with something better, but then I stopped reading after the first paragraph, since it was filled with stuff that did not fit our universe or ruleset at all. AI just does not know enough about what we are doing to really help with details.

If you are happy with it, carry on from there.

Sorry:( Looks like I have to still learn a lot:/ My thought was that we want to focus on the Abby meeting - that's way I provided the truck... :/ And we are less concerned about the packing of things - I felt that there was such suggestion.

But I can see how moral dilemma would be interesting in this.

So we can change it that Bob only threw out Raf at place and immediately departed to the star port - to prepare the ship, and he have to go there at that time in order to it be ready on time? The rest would stay.

Should I edit it? Maybe it is not too late?

I presume it is what Hanibal was always saying? As I watched the show being a kid, and it was aired only in my native language:)

I loved that phrase:)

Maybe, if we have to. But that makes little sense, and still provides a van (he has a cell phone, you can always just call him back, that scene in movies where someone hangs up a phone and everyone goes 'well, that means the conversation is over' no longer makes sense when it is not a payphone).
It is done. Unless people really object we will just leave it as fact.

Ok, will try to remember.
In fact I'm VERY curious how you have imagined him. So dying for the description already:)

And ok, fair points: let's assume the AI inspiration didn't ever happened only the barter between Raf and Bob.

---

Gush... thinking of it: I think it is very hard for me to figure it out how much I should be proactive? Probably because I almost don't have any real experience with playing(maybe I still think about those games more from GM-wonna-be perspective?) RPG apart from PbP on this and other side. They say you should be proactive in PbP format, as there is no time to establish every detail. You should make your rolls in advance, to make game faster - and the GM can discard them if they are not needed. But waiting for him to ask for it could make game go for ages.

Any good guidelines? That wouldn't require to read the whole book about it? :)

What I meant here was that he really [i]needed[/I] to get to the star port as fast as possible to get the ship ready on time. So he couldn't turn around or even leave the van with us. But I know... "slightly" far-fetched...

I usually think this way:
1. Can I come up with something that would help the situation/problem?
2. How do I come up with a way to bring this into the story without outright solving it?
3. Write RP in a way that the GM can reply with a yes, no or maybe.

That way you can proactively add ideas to the game, but it doesn't force it.

@vagueGM, maybe a driving or mechanic roll would be something that can still make the van a challenge?

Yeah, but he also needs to 'get the ship ready' which means taking the stuff that needs to be taken. Coming back and loading up will take minutes, the rest in on the scale of hours and days, so 'haste makes waste'.

I don't tend to do infodumps, and I tend to give the players a lot of say in what the people they are playing with are like. So NPC descriptions tend to come along as details come up in play. We slowly learn what they are like and what they are good at. There was all sorts a 'assumptions of competence' in what I read of that AI generated text, assumptions that do not fit with Traveller's less-than-superhuman motif.
It was an interesting OOC experiment, but, indeed, is not part of the game.

tl;dr
Well, reading lots of books about it is a good option. :)

Be open to learning, and play lots of games. Talk about it with your fellow players (GMs are players too). Adjust to the various games' different styles. Patience and Practice. Listen to TheGenerator.

---

Longer 'guide':
It is a learning experience. Don't rush it, we are patient. Also don't get offended when we correct you. Ask questions and adjust for next time. Just like you did here.
Switching from GM-mode to player-mode can be hard. Maybe (in this example) think about how you would feel as the GM if the players said: "GM says we have a problem of not having a truck... let's just say we have a truck. That solves that problem, right?".

GMs can make good players, often they know what sorts of things cause problems for GMs and know to avoid them. But they might also have not encountered a particular problem and fall right into it.

Do you see, from a GM perspective, the specific issue happening here? It is not a big deal, and does fit with my style (if the players don't like a scene/encounter we skip it), but we were, maybe, doing a thing here and you decided, on your own, to 'be proactive and skip it' to 'move things along' (after everyone else had been waiting for you to get back from the weekend (which we knew about from the start), but was also the reason things were not moving, and only mentioned now because the previous time you were over-proactive was also after a weekend away).

Having Bob come in and solve the lack of vehicle was a potential solution if people wanted it, but you stepped on the scene and killed it, without finding out if anyone wanted to play out that scene or do an in-game, by-the-rules solution. It bypassed all RP and mechanics.

---

I don't know who 'they' are, but one should be proactive in all RPGs, we are not passive observers along for the ride. This is not a story-book provided by the GM.
True. However, that also means that details that have been established --in this case, that getting a truck would not be easy-- are kinda important --in a Checkovian way-- honour them.
That depends very much on the rules of the game. That sounds like DnD advice. We are not playing DnD.

How would you roll in advance here? What would you roll? We first need the fiction to be able to work out what to roll. Do you see how your haggling with Bob over the price could not have happened with a roll-first mentality? We first needed the fiction of what you were doing so we can work out the applicable Skills, then we needed to set the Difficulty, only then can you roll.

Fiction First.
Rolling can slow a game down, but rolling wrong breaks the game and that slows it down even more... sometimes to a complete halt. To speed things up I prefer to have as little rolling as possible, but rolling is fun, and an important part of the game, so there has to be some.

A situation where the players do not roll can place too much power in the hands of the GM. The dice dictate the outcome/cost/consequence, and without dice the GM just decides, and that can feel unfair. "We were warned to not go in, but we walk in anyway.", "Rocks fall, you die!" does not feel at all good. "...we walk in, rolling to be careful and avoid the deadly trap... and get a 1.", "Rocks fall, you die." is a very different feeling of blame, that is clearly not the GM's fault, it was the dice.

The dice help everyone agree on how bad things are. It also makes a difference who rolled the dice: Players want to feel 'in control of their own characters', so even having the 'GM roll for them to speed things up' feels wrong. Same dice, same odds, but different feeling.
Rolling now, after we have seen that he has a van, and that he got it to your location, is sorta pointless. The problem is known to be solved, what would the interesting consequences be?
That, again, very much depends on the game and its rules. In something like PbtA where 'nothing never happens' every dice roll must be acknowledged (by the rules), some even provide XP and you don't want to take that away from the player after they have got exited about it.

I was recently dragged into a discussion on GP Discord about MotW and XP on a miss, and people were complaining that some players 'roll weak stats in safe situations' to get free XP. Which I had not encountered in my games, at least not for very long. Firstly I don't allow players to roll before they have been asked to --so no 'rolling without risk'-- and secondly, in most PbtA the rolls/Moves only trigger when there is danger. I regularly have players ask "Can I roll Read a Person'" and I point them to the text of the move, telling them that "the situation did not seem 'charged' but if you roll --by the rules-- it is, (maybe they will notice you studying them and get upset that 'you don't trust them'?)". After the first time they 'die' from a failed roll in a 'safe' situation they stop that cheating, but at least they got the XP.

Look to the game rules for that. I don't discard rolls, same way I don't encourage post-and-then-edit. Everything matters.

My lawyer informs me to add the following disclaimer:
TheGenerator is in no way liable for action taken as a result of their advice.
:P

Tough. It is generally good advice, I will continue to recommend listening to it. :)

XP is overrated. I have been playing a different game here on gamersplane for a year now (forgot to celebrate) and have earned 0 XP. Still like Playing though!
The GM is a real cheapskate when it comes to XP... If only I could remember his name, my memory's a bit vague at the moment.

😁😘

True.
True.
Really? Have you checked your coin purses? Someone (whose name we are unsure of) did give you a whole bag-o-XP.

🤭

Good ones! Thanks a lot!
Reading a book is always a good option! :) But unfortunately I have a pile of those still in my queue for reading... and it's getting bigger + they are mostly about more important subjects to me. So: thank you both even more for taking the time and explaining/providing your opinions on this to me in more concise way! I will read those carefully.
So I'm able to do something in the right way after all - good start;)
Yes, it's always good to put yourself in the position of others. I get this remark:)
Yes, now I see it how you see it. But it was based on the incentive - as I understood it - that our main focus is not the packing the things, but the meeting with the hacking software dealer. Apparently I understood it wrong? But it all come out as me deciding that "we" don't want to deal with the problem of lack of transport. I didn't noticed it and I agree that was bad of me. BUT: it wasn't my intention. Due my lack of experience it seemed not so important. And I felt that focus was somewhere else - the dealer meeting - and abby flat was only a place to gather. And I still think it could be read that way... :/ But I will be more cautious in the future.

The weekend thing - I was telling about it from the very beginning and thought it won't be a problem. If it IS a problem and I'm slowing everyone down, maybe we should plan me leaving the game(could be in some longer period of time, not to break the game even more)? Maybe I'm not experienced enough for you guys? I'm starting to wonder if I'm good fit for this group. Don't want to spoil the fun for you. And I don't have problem with someone else playing my PC - better for Raf to live some more... :)
Sounds really bad:/ Again: I only have one explanation of me - thought the focus is somewhere else + Lack of experience.

---

Yes, now I see it.
I have never played DnD - somehow never was interested, maybe only in OSR approach.

By "roll in advance" I meant "in general" and seen many people here doing it on GP:
- in example: you describe - in fiction - that you look at some device and want to get to know something, and you add the roll (technical) to the same post, other example would be about looking for something - perception - in cases when the roll is almost obvious,
- so you don't wait for the GM to tell you that you should roll for this( post #1), you roll ( in post #2) and then GM write response (post #3)... instead you attach optional roll in the "post #0" - "just in case" you were right and GM can answer in next one respecting or not the roll - it makes things faster,
Yes. Always:)
It is:)
Very interesting remarks!

So I should never roll in advance in this game? Let's say:
- we encounter some cache with few drones in it.
- in my RP I would write: "Raf is checking what kind of drones are those."
- normally I would add a Remote Ops.(EDU) roll - seems obvious for me for this simple situation? And if you don't like/need it can simply ignore it?
- or should I wait for you to tell me to do so? So the situation will be resolved only in next 2 posts?

The weekend thing is not a problem, we knew about it going in. I only mentioned it because both times you suddenly pushed to 'speed things up' was after a weekend wait.
That is up to you. We are happy to keep you around if you are happy to keep learning. But if our style is not working for you, then we will also understand if you want to leave, at any time.
I don't do that. If you leave you take you PC with you. They are your PC.
If you are really confident you will be rolling the right thing, and that a roll would have been called for, and that you know the Difficulty of that roll, then it might speed things up a bit. It you get it wrong then it definitely will slow things down a whole lot.

Some games have simple things like 'Perception', and it is obvious that if roll would be needed it would be that. But, even in those games, if you roll Perception and miss, but the GM was going to give you the information for free, now they can not and you have to 'not notice something'. The rolls matter, and should not be ignored.
Roll what Skill? With which Characteristic? Against what Difficulty? If you roll and get a 7, it is too late to discuss if the DM was lower than the standard 8 and you will fail where you would otherwise have succeeded, if you get a 9 it makes it very hard for the GM to say "sorry, you needed a 10", even if they don't notice it, they are more inclined to say it was not that hard. Out of fairness to everyone, Difficulty is a discussion that needs to happen before the dice results are known.
If you roll it, it happened, and is now a concrete part of the game. Ignoring a roll would require there to be significant extenuating circumstances (the type that likely render the whole post invalid).

Once the dice come out we are committed.

Ok, understood. Probably this roll in advance mainly works in PbtA games, where the Target Numbers/Difficulty and your Mod are already known in advance. Or maybe Year Zero Engine when you usually don't use difficulty so much.

But here we have this Difficulty provided by GM... so that makes sense and I see what you are telling me:)

In the same time I'm in one of the Cyberpunk RED(its STAT+d10 ruleset vs TN) games when all the players usually roll with their posts - and GM never provide any Target Number/Difficulty, he just interprets the rolls. But it is quite different style of game I must say. Interesting how many approaches there are:)

Ok. I will not roll in advance.
I wouldn't like to leave this game... as currently this is the most exciting game for me from all I play. Probably because of the completeness and logic of Traveller system, our world + characters building and this noir-hard-science-fiction feel with potential of discovering new worlds:) And your attention to details - Vague - that is very "my way" too - if I would have more time at least.

But, yet again it can be me who spoil the fun for others and I wouldn't want it to stay that way... ?

Definitely not a good fit for PbtA games, and is actually against the rules in PbtA and causes all sorts of problems. The players (including and mainly the GM) have the job of watching for Move Triggers, when one comes up the rules say to call it out and talk about it.
It is in the rules that you talk about it first.

On a 6-, by the rules, the GM has to make a GM Move, it is not optional. So tossing around rolls that are not called for means more GM Moves, and that is 'bad' for the characters.
Sure. But providing such is the rule, and we are still playing by the rules here. We might house-rule it later if we decide it is a problem (often called for in PbP), but we will start with the rules as written till we know them better. I don't recommend house-ruling games till after they have been played, else things that should fit together don't and it can be hard to tell why. House-rules also often turn all games into the main game the GM plays, trying the actual rules first give them a chance to stand on their own.
How about: We will tell you if it is a problem? We have had two 'problems' and we have dealt with them by talking about it, I don't foresee it getting worse.

I'm good with it:)

So we are dangerously getting close to be friends ;)

Wow! Very good one! :) Perfect timing. Considering how Raf is visibly overly enthusiastic about getting into action...

Player has cold feeling travelling down his spine :)

Is Abby paying for the meds too? Then it's 9600/5 =1920 else 9600/4=2400

She will pay.

You may have to talk her into paying for anything she does not use, but it should not be hard to convince her that they will be needed.

You are welcome to neglect to mention the discount you got.

Speaking of money: Have we had Bob load any Trade Goods onto his Gig? Possibly packaged as 'parts'.

Think about it as we play. If we want to engage in some Trade (Speculative or otherwise) to help offset the costs, we can do so.

I will mention it later when the action is slowing down.

Yeah. It will get even easier to get money out of everyone after something medical has happened and the need for your stuff/suggestions has been proven.

Since they are 'traders' they will understand how the market works. Demand vs supply and such 😬

Who?

If you bought specialty goods before the civil war broke out you might have the chance to make a tidy profit when there is fear of a shortage.

I assume the main export from Fiberville optical cables, made from the ruby-sands?

If any of you knew there was a civil war coming they might have made plans to stock up?

Ronny and Raf did some smuggling before, I was referring to that.
Lio is not in the 'business' he isn't planning on making a profit, also not for the drugs. (Don't worry)

The dice have spoken. Abby takes her stuff. :)

Thanks for trying, WhtKnt 😅

So it is too late for Raf to try use his Leadership?

For what purpose?

Deal with the fiction first, if there is a way the Leadership Skill would apply, then we can look at it.

The Skill description only talks about using it in Combat, but it is fairly standard for RPGs to think that Combat is the only thing that matters.

Bear in mind though, that most of these people won't really see you as their 'leader', so it will be strange for you to start 'shouting orders'. You might need to earn that first, and being a good leader in Combat might be a way to engender such trust.

If you mean to help with Abby's stuff, the dice have been rolled, and we must abide by their 'decision'. The result was a 3, so there is probably no way to get it to an 8+ to make a difference anyway.

What does your character do? The conversation was quiet, so you would be relying on reading body-language to notice that things have become tense.

@WhtKnt: I missed the "Ooh, wait! What's this? This is so cool!" in your post. What was Cat referring to, and do you want to try to use that point to continue and to try to rescue the conversation?

Yes. I don't think that Raf is already seen as leader to any one. Maybe the main organizer for some part of the plan, but that quite far:) So no shouting - not this time;)

I was thinking about different approach - as you said, some slight trick and maybe calling on some outside authority, or something like that.

I think I will simply write my RP(I'm in the middle of it) and you will tell me if there is any chance to change the situation, ok?

Done. My RP is assuming that Abby know very well what we are going to do at Wilsons for real - of course.
Edit: So Raf is trying to get to her intelligence, sense of potential loss if there will be too much staff and some of it will have to be left at the place of action and tries to present choosing what to take as programing task: filtering the database by specific query.

Hope it was visible with my average English:)

Yeah, and she knows that there is no way to come back for anything she does not take now.

It looks like most of your post was for Bob's benefit, and is about the Deception. I am not sure if you want to roll that, seeing as Raf is not good at that sort of thing. Does he think he is good? Does he think he is likely to fool Bob? Or does he desperately need Abby to roll the actual Deception for him? (I am not much of a fan of rolling NPC-vs-NPC, it is boring, but this one might have something to add.)

My na Raf's main aim was to still try to convince Abby no to take so much staff. And make departure from her flat easier. And I think he tired to get to her reason. Just not telling explicitly what they will be doing, as it is still not good to say those things out loud.

Not revealing everything to Bob was just a possible side effect. He know that Bob may start to figure it out what is happening, but plans to tell him more when they will be at Wilsons.

So, to sum it up: the post wasn't to deceive Bob, was to convince Abby by logical arguments, not lies. Showing her better the context:)

Lol... good one! I like it. Raf would like it even more;)

Sure, you are not lying to her (just trying to get her to lie to Bob:), though the only real 'logical argument' was that it might raise suspicion --which she will agree with-- but putting the stuff in crates labeled 'parts' should fix that, she thinks.

Arguments like 'take three days worth of clothes' when she knows she is leaving forever, and talking about coming back for more when she believes that is not possible, are only 'logical' if they convince her that lying to Bob is worth her giving up her stuff forever.

Given these facts, and the previous snake-eyed dice, Persuading her will be Difficult... If you want to make a roll.
I suppose it is also appropriate under the rules to say that Cat's roll was part of a Task Chain, and provides a -2 to your Average roll, both bring us to the same values and I would only want to do one here. There are multiple ways the mechanics interact, and I am sure we will find which we tend to prefer.

I am not sure that INT should apply to Persuade, unless it was particularly 'clever' persuasion. I am willing to be persuaded that it does in this case.

Partially I agree, but the amount/volume may play some role too IMHO. And I also talked about moving this amount of staf. And the need of fast moves of the whole team...
Yeah. I know that she knows that. "3 days" was only a try to put her 'query' in a word - set some limit. Not to try to convince here that it will be the best for her. But it may be the best for her to be able to "move" - at such times of war like those - fast enough?
Hmmm... not mine to judge. Could be quite hard for me - considering how much effort I have put in writing this RP - to say those were "stupid" arguments. But maybe they were? :)

If you are not persuaded already... maybe we ought to leave it that way: becoming a baggage boys of Abby? :)

And in this case Difficult(achieved in either way) feels good to me. So should I roll? :)

I would like to try some trading. Like to check all of those subsystems in Traveller:)

And about Bob loading those at the Gig: I think it could be that way, that he started to figure out what is happening(also during events that will only happen in future from current point in time), SO he packed those goods because he wants to use those as his "bargaining advantage" in order to convince us to take him with us. So maybe he will us it when Raf finally will tell his what is going on. Just an idea of course.

As a side note: I'm starting to feel bad about it that Raf didn't tell Bob already about their real plan... but we didn't precise the relation between them. So probably he had some reasons for that. Maybe Bob is just not good with keeping secrets? I don't know:)

Yes, the amount is the challenge that you have to deal with (complicated by the emotions of the fact that you are asking a woman to give up house-and-home). You can't use the fact that it is a challenge as your argument in the challenge. :)

There are many ways to deal with the challenge, these Persuasions are only one of them. It is viable to just take the lot, there may be trouble on the street while loading, but that is something that was asked for by the loud van. :)
She gets that, that is why you have the opportunity to roll to get her to acquiesce. It will not be easy, though, she is giving up her current life and did not agree to this.
This is why we resort to dice, they can decided if your argument works. We don't have to rely on the players' (the GM is a player) ability to articulate their plan clearly, same we way don't rely on the players' ability to swing a sword to decide if they hit.
You might find I said the exact opposite. That INT won't 'normally' apply to Persuade, but that there was enough 'clever intent' in there that it could now, if you were trying to use your Intelligence (or is it intellect?) there. It is up to you if it applies. The Skill rolled and the Characteristics used affect the tone of the outcome.
That is viable. All her stuff can fit in the van with the whole party and the stuff you still need or have with you.
Yeah, go ahead and roll Persuade (INT) 10+. (or you can roll against 8+ and take a -2, just say which you are doing.)

Sure, but do you want to do it now? It could complicate your situation in the short-term. Though running out of money can complicate your situation in the long-term...

It is a bit turvy-topsy but we can see how much money you guys have at the end and pretend you spent that on Trade Goods? But I don't think you pay anything for general Trade Goods, just Speculative Trade, so that will be another decision when the time comes.
If you bought the stuff last week and had him load it, there is little reason for him to be suspicious. He can easily assume it is the stuff you need for the job. The more suspicious he becomes the more each little peculiarity will add up, though. But going without any gear for the job is possibly more suspicious?
Indeed.
There wasn't a war before, so there would have been less (no) reason for him to want to come with, or to care aside from if he could get hush-money.

It is a good sign when players start caring about the NPCs. :)
I do not get the impression that he is. He seems like a 'loud-mouth' to me.

Consequences, consequences, always consequences. Like in real life:)
Sorry... completely misread you :/ You indeed said the opposite. Yes, INT in this case also feels the best for me.
Ok, rolling in RP thread in a moment. I think it was different "path" to try to "get to" Abby, so 10+ feels better.

Nice one, Pedrop! :)

As a player: yes. But I think Raf is focused only on getting the ship and having everything that is needed to run it efficiently(fuel, parts), not thinking about anything else to much... So if others also wants that, someone else could suggest it(or Bob?) or... we can leave it for later, as you said.

But... thinking about it now - it could be: many different ship parts that Raf bought some time ago. And when he was buying them, he certainly could think something like: "The more the better, if they won't be needed we will sell them, sooner or later." Especially considering that we are at TL9-10 :)
I agree. Ship parts make the most sense for me and would be bought in advance.
Yes, you are right situation was quite different not long ago.
"You see Bob!? Even GM thinks that about you! I know you are terribly old, but you still should learn to keep your mounth shut at the right moments!"

Yes indeed. The more the game resembles 'real life' the easier it is to make sense of how things will respond/react and what will happen if we do something.
Yeah. We will find the balance. This was two rolls for the same objective, but, as you say, when they are on different paths. They are not part of a Chain, you guys were working towards the same goal, but were not really 'working together'.
Not Bob, he does not know you are taking the ship and leaving the system, so Trade would be quite incongruous in his mind. :)

Abby may have spoken about it, but she has not experience in this regard. It is also ultimately a player decision.
Can be. That makes sense for Raf to have done. Though that will not bring anything near the same sort of profit potential as trying to buy something this system specialises in and that you 'know' will be valuable wherever you are going (presumably the Characters have some idea about where they are going next).

If you (maybe Cat?) suspected there was a war or unrest coming you could make a killing by stockpiling the commodity made here, knowing it will become scarce due to disrupted supply and manufacturing. But the harder you push, the greater the risks, of course.

For instance: You might be able to buy 'Common Electronics' and later sell them as 'Advanced Electronics' due to war-shortages. Such insider Trading can yield vastly better profits than any legit Speculative Trade.
I am not sure I understand that. TL is obviously not an in-universe concept, and there is always a gradient. TL10 stuff is just 'Next-Gen' from the Characters' perspective. The whole universe is at that TL range, so it is 'normal' for you guys.

That was added after the roll to role-play having loused it up so badly. Essentially, Cat lost focus when she saw something shiny.

Ah, I thought I had not read it. Editing a post people have read can get confusing.

How does Cat react to Abby's sudden and unexpected 'attack'?

Somehow I feel that Cat having a lot of contacts at the "elites" - being noble, and with this conspiracy(being involved, yes?) could be the best informed person in the group - about that the war is coming. Not necessarily when it is coming.

But I wonder what @WhtKnt thinks about it? Are you interested in this trading thing?
What I meant by this:
I thought that as we are at TL9-10 right now: space ships, so their parts too are still quite uncommon - and as you underscored it quite a few times(rightfully so) - are at the very high end of what humans were able to achieve in technolog regards.
If that is still true: that would mean that those ship parts are very valuable wherever we will be going, and aseptically if we would go towards the "rim worlds".
So: if we agree to the above(?) that would mean that buying ship parts at the capital of some planet, probably would bring hight profit in most places that are further from the "main roads". Or even in general: in most places:) Plus: war probably means some ships will be damaged, so the parts will be expensive too.

Thats the path I see for Raf to engage him in trading, that seems the most thematic for me. But as I said earlier maybe the other PC will have more/better incentive to buy something in advance that we could sell later? :) Raf - if was informed - would certainly be interested in helping with this:)

Indeed, that is true, but that means they are expensive to buy as well, and there is not all that much demand. You could make some profit by selling anything you thought you might need for your new ship and did not use, but there is no guarantee that you will find a buyer soon. Looking for one would be a roleplay, though.
Yes, but also here. And you don't have all that much money to buy such expensive items. You are welcome to try it though, it just would not be the wisest investment if you were not already looking for parts, or possibly had a use for such parts.
That can be true of most items, and finding buyers will be a challenge the further you get from the central areas that can afford ships.
Though, if you are Jumping away from the war, it may take years for it to affect other systems, not everyone can Jump. If you want to make a quick buck off the nascent war, you may need to do it in-system.
Understood. You are in the market for a ship, so you are thinking about ships. It makes sense to look at those markets, but that does not make them the best markets to dabble in. It could add favour to the story to do so, or the others could have to work to persuade you to look at other goods that might be more immediately profitable.

This is all good RP fodder.

I think that Cat would be aware that the war is about to begin, just not when exactly. As far as benefitting from it, Cat isn't motivated by money, so there would have to be some other hook to get her interest.

She might know well enough to have planned for it while planning the getaway. Even if it was going to take weeks to materialise, she could have been putting things in place.
Fair enough. Running out of money later might change those motivations, but we can deal with that when it happens.
If Cat shared her suspicions about the coming unrest the others might have acted on that information.

She was rather tight-lipped about why she needed to get away so badly, blaming it an ex-lover stalking her. She has not specifically said anything about the war to anyone.

Cool, forget about that angle then. Everyone is still free to engage in Trade if/when we get round to it, but you won't have the advantage of foreknowledge.

How difficult should this be? It could be locked up in a military facility, but that seems a bit too much ;)

My first thought was that Ronny might be doing a temp job somewhere, possibly off the books and that place has gotten their hands on one for research purposes. With the war breaking out, the researchers probably won't have the time to miss it. But it does involve getting the computer out of the building.

Ok, no war profiting. Good by moral POV:) And may simplify our discussion a little?

I looked at the book, and this what I have qualified as ship parts - "Advanced Machine Parts" - is indeed awfully expensive. But I see another arc. Raf and Lio want's to build a cybernetics lab at the ship, don't they? At least some day. Or sooner? As the cybernetics are also very expensive... buying them for sell would be hard too - right now :( BUT! Buying the equipment for the lab could be in reasonable ranges? The same scenerio could be here: we bought some parts and equipment for the lab in excess, to sell it later.

It could be one of the way Lio and Raf were planing to make some money after leaving Ruby? Building some cybernetics staff and sell.

Different approach would be to barrow some mony from some corrupted government official - with no intention to pay him off... But I'm not sure we want to introduce this in the current events - also?

Whatever way we will choose, I think it( buying some staff to sell later ) could take place like 2 months ago from now. It could be a parallel thread with those events? But I don't know who else is interesting in checking those trading subsystems of Traveller?

Side note: apart about the trading arc - this cybernetic lab, could be Lio's and Raf's "pet project, getting back to younger years, leaving the harsh world for the benefit of science, and changing it for the better" - whether it is possible with their skills or not:) And making some money on it, will not hurt too... especially that this "some" in the case of cybernetics could be quite a lot... What you think @Airshark ?

There is a world of difference between 'war profiting' and 'war profiteering'. Since you did not know that an actual war was coming (even if you expected some civil upheaval), making some money is not all that morally dubious.
Yeah, and even those don't quite fit 'ship parts' Ships can only really be made or repaired in a Shipyard in a High-Tech Spaceport (page 188), and it does not make much sense to build one of those where the parts are not available. So finding a buyer who can use the parts and does not already have access to the parts will be a whole big thing. We can make a mission out of it, possibly say that Raf thinks he knows of a buyer, and then you have to get to them.

'Ship parts' are not an easily-tradable good, so going with them for RP reasons will have RP complications.
We can engage the mechanics to get you a better price, both here (Industrial and High Tech) and again where you sell (hopefully Non-Industrial and maybe Asteroid? (based on the (faulty) assumption that 'Ship parts' are 'Advanced Machine Parts', which makes selling them on an Asteroid nonsensical)). But we will need to see how much money you have at the end of your heist, we can then pretend you already spent that on Trade.

You have 81 Tons of Cargo Space, Trading 1 Ton of goods will not pay the fuel bills.
That is, of course, an option. It has big risks, and might not work.

If you do this, do you discuss it with the rest of your team? Are they involved?
More than that, they are so rare as to be virtually unavailable at your TL. You might need to be entrepreneurs and start that enterprise from scratch, which could have great rewards if you can find the market. That sounds like a thing for later, and your lab might instead lead to missions where people have/need Cybernetics.
That might be better left till you know what the ship is like... and till you have the money to build it. You can work on that in your spare time as we play. Spending all your 'spare change' on starting a lab could leave you broke if you can't immediately turn that into profit.
That is a possibility, but carries high risks of being stuck with speciality goods you don't need and can't sell. All your plans to 'sell off your excess' are not ideal plans to make money fast. Looking at the markets you are in and going to and then buying and selling the right thing for both is the Traders' Way.
That sound like an excellent end-goal, but I fear it will take a lot more time and money than you have right now?
If you just want to say you did some Trading last month we can start a new thread for it, but it is probably only a handful of posts.

You can either focus on the mechanics of the Trade system or focus on the RP of trading (guided by the mechanics), or mix and match as and when you feel one approach is more appropriate.
We can leave it till we have dealt with the current mission, then decide. We can say it happened in the past.

If only some players are interested in this, and the ones that are have the spare bandwidth, we can get in the habit of running Speculative Trade threads in parallel with our missions.
That was more how I saw it coming into play. Maybe once you have a Ship you two will find you really want one, and start to build one in the RP. A 'lab' sounds all fancy, but you can just start to accumulate the gear you use in a Stateroom or part of the Hold and call that your 'Lab'.

Cybernetics are rare enough that you will have to work to get any gear, and it will bring outside interest in your capabilities. Like the Jump Drive, having this will make you special and lead to missions/stories.
You might (eventually?) need to get some levels in Profession (Cybernetics) and/or Profession (Medic) to fully capitalise on those as ways to make steady money.

Probably somewhere between 'locked up in a military facility' and 'walk it out of a building you have access to' in terms of difficulty?

Though, the amount of effort needed will say something about the value of the prize, so if it was quite easy, it will just be a slightly better computer, if it was really (militarily) hard then it will be a very special computer indeed. Abby will appreciate both, but... you know, it is not just the thought that counts.
We can nest another heist within your current heist. The group can decide how big a job they want it to be.

Do we do another big job? Is Ronny doing this alone?

@pedrop

Don't forget that building the medical infrastructure is just an excuse. We don't actually have anything to do that with us. The stuff we brought are personal belongings...

At first I didn't understand what you are talking about:) Now I know. I was talking about the lab inside our ship. Not at the depot. So we will be taking it with us.

I also assume you are pretending to be installing a Medical Bay inside the Ship. The Depot is an area of space with very little infrastructure or buildings, this also explains why you are going to a ship.

Yes.
My first idea was to (pretend to) install the bay inside the ''office building '' but that was before you made clear that the depot is just a bunch of ships parked in space.
So that was a bit confusing on my behalf.

Just as with going to Abby's place. I think it is something that Ronny would do alone or maybe with one other person. But I don't want to keep the other players waiting while that happens. So I'd say either we all go or we split up and each do a thing. Splitting up has the risk of spinning out of control though.

So in the interest of the game, I'd opt for everyone going.

As for the idea of where it is. How about it's in the building were Ronny did some work, but not his department or maybe even a different floor where another company operates. So he'd have access to the building, but not to the room with the computer in it. That makes it a bit more difficult.
I'm also still open to the black market deal. If we can just make it happen by spending money, that might be less side-tracking.

Any preference from the other players?

no preference, don't mind splitting up either. I'm evenly happy reading your story as making my own. :)

If we want an in-game reason to all go together (even if it is just to sit in the car with Abby (allowing for intervention if needed)) I can easily introduce a complication with the first meeting that means you have to move now.

Trading subgame
Maybe I have e different version of the book(but I think it is the newest one) but on page 188, there is nothing about repairing ships. Only about building ships. But maybe I have misread something? Besides: It makes sense that you can not build spaceship without Shipyard and star port. But repairing it should be possible in many more situations.

Instead on page: 159, we have a section about repairing ships. And there is also a price for 1 ton of spare parts, and that is... Cr100 000 :) Way beyond Raf budget right now.

So:
- the way I understand it - ship parts are very tradable, wherever any ships are operating. And that's logical to me. Especially considering this sentence from rulebook: "Spare parts can be purchased at the cost of Cr100000 per ton and capable captains will always ensure they carry some in reserve."
- still they are too expansive for what we are talking here about, for Raf, for now:)

So let's leave this option out for now.
Fully true:) So if our aim is to try this subsystem(I think it is?) and make some money for the team, let's leave out all the expensive/RP items like ship parts or cybernetics(as you also suggested). Let's assume that Raf knowing that running a ship is costly, wanted to secure some basic income for the team. So what are the best good to buy on this planet? :) You were talking about something made from sand??

Additionaly: let's remember, that for now we are restricted by Gig's 8.6 cargo hold - or we are not?
After some consideration: Let's not complicate things too much for now.
Yeah, generally I agree, but one detail: I think there will be always some market for replacement limbs - nothing fancy, just getting back to full capability after some unfortunate accident. And if the technology is so rare - the better for us:D
Exactly. Let's do it that way.
Yes, end goal it is - for me.
Yes, Raf wants to get to some power. Without money for fuel it may be quite hard... :) So I think the training will be not a one thing.
Let's start with mechanics, and we will check what dice will tell us, then add the RP.
I'm for it.
You read in my mind. Are you Psionic? :)
Sounds like adventure :D Two geeks, their friends and some... Weird Science... ;)