{"id":1679,"date":"2009-07-16T17:12:02","date_gmt":"2009-07-16T17:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/random-average.com\/?p=1679"},"modified":"2009-07-16T17:20:57","modified_gmt":"2009-07-16T17:20:57","slug":"316-actual-play-repteloid-chameleon-tricksters-in-the-asteroid-belt-no-way-were-those-actual-troopers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/2009\/07\/316-actual-play-repteloid-chameleon-tricksters-in-the-asteroid-belt-no-way-were-those-actual-troopers\/","title":{"rendered":"[3:16] Actual Play: Reptiloid Chameleon Tricksters in the Goya Asteroid Belt &#8212; no way were those actual troopers."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So the player of this episode&#8217;s spotlight character didn&#8217;t show up for PTA last night (<em>Khaaaaan!<\/em>), I suddenly needed to run something off the cuff, and we didn&#8217;t get started until 7, due to the waiting to see if the Spotlight guy would show.<\/p>\n<p>Right. Zero Prep time, short play-time. Go!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lady Blackbird felt like a little too much prep. Maybe. or something. It felt like too much.<\/li>\n<li>A Penny for My Thoughts would have been perfect, but I haven&#8217;t finished reading the rules yet.<\/li>\n<li>I also haven&#8217;t read Geiger Counter or Danger Patrol yet.<\/li>\n<li>I couldn&#8217;t FIND Ghost Echo.<\/li>\n<li>Mouse Guard would have been perfect&#8230; if we already had characters done.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And I&#8217;m flipping through my PDFs, and say &#8220;Okay, how about <a href=\"http:\/\/boxninja.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">3:16<\/a>?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/gregorhutton.com\/boxninja\/threesixteen\/threesixteen-cover.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">3:16 is (on the surface) about Space Marines blowing the hell out of aliens. It&#8217;s Warhammer 40k, Spacehulk, Aliens, Starship Troopers (the movie), and not a small amount of Full Metal Jacket and Platoon all rolled up into a thick, fleshy ball, shot full of stims, and dropped out an airlock.<\/p>\n<p>We went with it.<\/p>\n<p>Character generation is fast.  Characters have two stats: Fighting Ability (FA) and Non-Fighting Ability (NFA). They have a reputation. They have a name.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Merra played <strong>Sgt. Trib<\/strong>, who had a rep as a <strong>super-positive optimist<\/strong>. Tim&#8217;s character immediately dubbed him &#8220;Sergeant Happypants&#8221;. FA6\/NFA4<\/li>\n<li>Tim played <strong>Cpt. Boll<\/strong>, a <strong>cigar-chomping vet<\/strong> who&#8217;d been promoted and demoted from Sergeant more times than he could count. FA7\/NFA3<\/li>\n<li>Chris played <strong>Trooper Weevil<\/strong>, who is <strong>snarly<\/strong>. FA7\/NFA3<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Their briefing by the prissy Lt. informed them that an asteroid-belt mining facility had gone signal dark.  Command was sending in 3rd Army, 16th Battalion to reestablish comms and make sure nothing had gone amiss.<\/p>\n<p>The troops were warned that Aliens were active in the area: reptilian humanoids with a POWERFUL MIMICRY ABILITY.  They were to be DESTROYED WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>&#8220;How do we tell if someone is a miner or a reptiloid?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;If he&#8217;s shooting at you, he&#8217;s a reptiloid pretending to be a miner.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;What if he&#8217;s just a scared miner?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;He&#8217;s a reptiloid, pretending to be a scared miner.&#8221;<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Note: the actual &#8220;alien threat&#8221; that I rolled up was Corrupt Troopers with the Armor ability.<\/p>\n<p>So the troopers get in the drop ship and head on down to the mining base.  In flight, while the Lt. droned on, the ship is hit with&#8230; something and starts to heel over and tumble.<\/p>\n<p>Cpl. Boll immediately pops the back deployment hatch and orders everyone to EVAC NOW!<\/p>\n<p>Weevil and Boll succeed, Trib does not.<\/p>\n<p>What followed was a firefight in the hangar bay with well-armed opponents who had taken out the transport with guided missiles.<\/p>\n<p>Afterwards, the troopers noticed the dead &#8216;reptiloids&#8217; looked just like dead troopers. In power armor identical to their own. With the same weapons.<\/p>\n<p>Really good camouflage, that.<\/p>\n<p>The proceed into the mining facility tunnels, getting harassed by one of the &#8220;enemy&#8221; (voiced by Clancy Brown), who taunted them with their ignorance of what Command was really up to out here, and how they didn&#8217;t know what they were really being used for, and how the troopers should be joining forces, not fighting.<\/p>\n<p>The Lt. ordered radios shut down.<\/p>\n<p>They came to the mining base\/town  in the heart of the asteroid.  At the center of the company-built town, they found a mass grave and a crudely built monument.  The &#8220;Enemy Voice&#8221; came over the town&#8217;s loudspeakers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>&#8220;You see what happened here? We were told the miners had been taken over by mind-controlling alien leeches &#8212; that we had to destroy them for their own good, and the good of Terra.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>&#8220;That wasn&#8217;t what happen. What happened was these families wanted better pay.  That&#8217;s it.  We got sent in to gun them down.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>&#8220;They aren&#8217;t the enemy. Command is the enemy. Terra is the Enemy. You are the enemy.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A big fight ensued. Tim took a look at all the Threat Tokens on the board, and decided to have a Flashback and name one of his Strengths &#8212; a move which automatically wins the conflict and wipes out all the Threat Tokens in Play. Many enemy armor suits were weak-spot-exploited.<\/p>\n<p>Having used a Strength, Boll is now eligible for promotion at the end of the mission&#8230; and he&#8217;s 1\/10th of the way to acquiring his final Strength\/Weakness: &#8220;Hatred of Terra&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>From that, I think you can guess at one possible arc in this game.<\/p>\n<p>They marines chase down the enemy as they retreat to their own ship, and there&#8217;s a final showdown versus the Enemy Voice marine right at the gangplank of the ship, before it flies off.<\/p>\n<p>Once again, he tries to get the troopers to come with him &#8211; to see the truth &#8211; and to DO something about it.<\/p>\n<p>Then Sergeant Happypants shot him in the face (and considered fragging Cpl. Boll into the bargain).<\/p>\n<p>The end.<\/p>\n<p>Back on the TCST Dortmunder, Cpl. Boll is promoted to Sergeant (again), and the unit requests (and gets) a number of weapon-grade improvements (though Weevil&#8217;s request for a tactical shotgun was denied).  Weevil&#8217;s NFA went up to 4, Boll&#8217;s FA went to 8.<\/p>\n<p>We were done playing in a little over 2 hours.<\/p>\n<p>Good stuff. I didn&#8217;t have the rules down too well &#8211; hadn&#8217;t read them in maybe six months &#8211; but we muddled through and I only forgot one important thing (NFA rolls out of combat give you a bonus in later rolls).<\/p>\n<p>And honestly? I&#8217;d kinda like to play this again and see what happens with these guys.  All told, what more do you want out of a quick and dirty night of gaming?<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Finally, as promised to the group, a series of links to hacks, tweaks, discussions, and actual play. I marked the particularly good stuff.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Talking about the game:<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.story-games.com\/forums\/comments.php?DiscussionID=7423\">What I don&#8217;t like about 3:16<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Hacks and Quick Improvements:<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.story-games.com\/forums\/comments.php?DiscussionID=7544\">3:16: Up and Down<\/a>. &lt;&lt;&lt;<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.box.net\/shared\/aorq6e0gg6\">Fight Infection- A Left4Dead 3:16 hack<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tools:<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.story-games.com\/forums\/comments.php?DiscussionID=7349\">[3:16] Planet Generator<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.random-generator.com\/index.php?title=ThreeSixteen_Planets\">ThreeSixteen Planets and Missions &#8211; Abulafia Random Generators<\/a>. <\/strong><strong>&lt;&lt;&lt;<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Actual Play<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indie-rpgs.com\/forum\/index.php?topic=26449.0\">[3:16] Another damned Bambi! Shoot it, shoot it! AK-K-K-K-K!<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indie-rpgs.com\/forum\/index.php?topic=28073.0\">Matt Wilson: 3:16 gives me love<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indie-rpgs.com\/forum\/index.php?topic=27352.0\">[3:16] the betrayal of planet Girlfriend<\/a>.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indie-rpgs.com\/forum\/index.php?topic=26920.0\">[3:16] Way Too Easy Or Just Got the Rules Wrong?<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indie-rpgs.com\/forum\/index.php?topic=27130.0\">[3:16] Semi-Captain, Lt.-Captain, almost-Captain on deck, sir!<\/a>.<\/strong><strong> &lt;&lt;&lt;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indie-rpgs.com\/forum\/index.php?topic=27568.0\">[3:16] Home is for the hating<\/a>. <\/strong><strong>&lt;&lt;&lt;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/snikle.wordpress.com\/2009\/06\/26\/316-assualt-on-degas\/\">3:16 \u2013 Assualt on Degas (online, using Maptools)<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.story-games.com\/forums\/comments.php?DiscussionID=7138\">[3:16, Actual Play Podcasts] The Hellworld Chronicles<\/a><\/strong> <strong>&lt;&lt;&lt;<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So the player of this episode&#8217;s spotlight character didn&#8217;t show up for PTA last night (Khaaaaan!), I suddenly needed to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[49],"class_list":["post-1679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-actual-play","category-table-top","tag-49"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1679"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1681,"href":"https:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1679\/revisions\/1681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}