Actual Play

Starting out we had two planets, Clinton's was a war between enslaved Robots and their cruel computer master (assisted by the mercenary group the Diamondbacks) on Planetoid BR 549?. His Goals were Get Alien Drive (d4) and 'Ally with Robots' (d6). Jason's was a resupply/recrew mission on Kint's World, an icy, inhospitable planet where a labor union (Interplanetary Workers Union) and The Isabellites were clashing over forced conversions and his goals were 'Round Out Crew' (d4) and 'Avoid Detection' (d6).

Jason's character, Pollard Kubb, arrived on the world and there was a strike/protest going on at the spaceport, with clashes between the IWU workers and the Isabellite conversion teams. Jason walked up to Eysteinn, the head organizer for the IWU, won a conflict, and convinced Eysteinn that it was okay to recruit some of Eysteinn's guys. He won a second conflict to recruit the guys, and a third to get off the planet even though the Isabellites were trying to figure out whether or not to stop him on 'religious grounds'. Clinton's crewman got involved on the side of the Isabellites, fighting them over 'religion', which was exactly counter to the goal of 'getting out undetected', he also had giant ice bats, listed as 'voracious megafauna' in the 'Environment' section of the planet, attack the Isabellites who were trying to get in the way of Jason's escaping captain.

Kint's World was a little dissatisfying. Jason's goals were all about getting off the planet, and weren't really aimed at getting him involved in the fight between the Isabellites and IWU. I think we solved this pretty well with his second world.

Clinton's captain's first world, Planetoid BR 549?, was better suited, Clinton had to engage with all three factions (The renegade robots, the Diamondbacks, and Clearmind the computer). He won a conflict to get into the tunnel where clearmind's crashed ship/command center was located, and another to figure out where the drive he was seeking was located. He then encountered Clearmind, who sent him out with a special bolt that would re-enslave the robots to Clearmind's will. Clinton's captain reverse-engineered the bolt to attempt to destroy Clearmind, instead (another conflict he won). Then, when he attempted to steal the drive after defeating Clearmind, he found a bomb attached to it. A brave robot, glad to be free of Clearmind, ended up sacrificing himself to save the humans. At the very end, the leader of the robots, S7BB8, joined the crew, much to the Security Officer's (Jason's crewman's) dismay. Clinton took a connection to Clearmind, who was a lot of fun to play, as his reward on the planet.

Planetoid BR 549? was a little rough to begin with, but ended up being a rousing space battle of wits. The somewhat creepy/silly vibe definitely spilled over onto Jason's second planet.

Jason's second planet, Sssathria, is a lush jungle world with Amazons and Lizardmen, and Fobolex Corporation is manufacturing a 'sex relaxant' called Copuzam. Jason's goals are 'Find the Pleasure Drug Formula' (d4) and 'Get Up On Queen' (d4) Jason landed and was rebuffed by the Fobolex people, who told him to leave. He left their landing strip but found a large open area in the middle of the Jungle/Swamp. Once the ship landed, it was attacked by a huge 'Leechtopus', a leech with octopus arms, on whose algae bad the ship had landed. The leechtopus was eating crewmen and pulling the ship under. With an assist from the 'Militant Women', Jason's crew defeated the Leechtopus and went to the Women's camp and celebrated. Jason, in an attempt to win their queen over, ended up in the ceremonial fighting pit. Pollard isn't suited to physical fighting, and lost this conflict (I think the only time the GM won a conflict the entire night). That's where we ended.

GM Observances (Remi)

• I was very busy all night. Both Clinton and Jason had a fair amount of free time when they weren't 'on stage'.
• The 'switching' is going to take some getting used to, as will the nature of narrating endings.
• The dice mechanic is fast moving and you can come back from the edge with a lucky roll. I was getting blown out a lot, though.
• I need to push conflicts harder, but I'm not quite sure how. Experience, I guess. Sssthria is the best planet so far, and Clinton's second planet, Aquine, should be a hoot, as well.
• I hope Jason and Clinton will come on and clarify and add to what I've written here.
• I made two sheets for this game. A 'Planet Sheet' http://www.too-fat.com/PDF/Planet_sheet.pdf so I could create planets more quickly and a 'Planet Creation Reference' http://www.too-fat.com/PDF/GM_Build_planet.pdf with all the Planet Creation steps and the World Adversity, Severe Stakes, and Vice Impairment charts on it.
• I wish that World Adversity were not randomly determined.
• We did not use a single connection. It is unclear how to bring them in.

Notes (these are taken more-or-less directly from the pad they're written on)

• Goals Should be Active! "Avoid Detection" is a bad one.
• Winner Narrator: Can the winner invent out of whole cloth or must he comply with what's written on the GM's faction sheet?
• GM's dice only do Aftermath for GMC dice or do the world dice add to Aftermath, too? (I think the answer is 'only GMC dice') -- Yes, only aftermath for specific GMC s. - Matt.
• Limited roll is a redundant control mechanism. (Ask Clinton) -- Someone will have to explain. I'm clueless. Matt.
• Who narrates the round endings in conflict? (This is described adequately, it just took some getting used to)
• Can GM use hazard to augment GMC attributes? -- Absolutely. You'll probably want to do that. -M
• It's no fun to invent a faction and be required to name it expressly in world creation or risk having it disused or marginalized. (So if, for example, someone says, "I want this planet to be about abused psychic dolphins," if they want the dolphins to be there as a major player, they have to use their Faction choice to add them. If not, the GM might make the main conflict between the evil tuna fishermen and the environmental group trying to stop them).
• The GM has to pay Hazard to destroy Goals, right? This has to be attached to a conflict, so if I spend the 5 Hazard or what have you, and lose the conflict, that 5 Hazard is gone. Is that correct? -- Yes. -M
• It took me 13.5 minutes to make up Sssthria in the middle of the game.

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