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Session 2A

The crew eagerly departs the ship to greet the friendly aliens. They are immediately yelled at in a different language. These aliens look like they have guns pointed at our crew! Quick thinking by Dr. Stone who tests to see if these aliens understand the language he has programmed. They do. They seem hostile and demand everyone get on their knees. The crew obliges and are soon manacled with restraints that cover their hands like metal mittens!

Suddenly the aliens are talking animatedly and Jack Shift realizes there are some other figures on a distant hill. The all hell breaks loose as the two alien groups begin a fire fight! Hitler quickly wild attacks his guard while Lars steals the keys with his mouth off of one of the dead aliens and frees himself and DeSanta who immediately attempts to shoot an alien rather than free his comrades. He does not kill the alien. The aliens decide to ignore the other group and all shoot at DeSanta…and they all miss.  :(

The new group finishes off the group they call “Raiders” who live out in the desert causing trouble. The new group is from the ARC Alliance and they are the ones our heroes originally contacted. Turns out their understanding of English was a bit less accurate than Dr. Simon’s understanding of their language!

The ARC team offers a deal, they will fix up the crews’ ship for galactic travel, if the crew will find the Raiders’ base and shut it down. The crew quickly agrees. They scavenge equipment from the dead Raiders and head off into the desert.

They identify the entrance to the underground base thanks so some great Battle rolls from Hitler. A quick plan is developed where DeSanta and Lars stealthily infiltrate and make a distraction, so the others can move in without attempting to stealth. The plan works…sort of. The distraction comes a little early as Lars critically fails and sets off a blade trap. Now with the Raider guards aware of their presence, another trap is triggered by the raider to collapse a wall on Dr. Stone. Stone weathers the rock fall and soon the crew have finished off the Raider guards…but did one slip away…?

Session 1 – Mission Possible

Our crew was assigned the ship “Khudkoshi”. During training, there were a few issues. This was not unexpected, since our “crimi-nauts” had never experienced modern space vessel technology, much less the physical demands of getting to and living in space. The crew was designated as backup to one of the three primary crews targeting the anomaly. After picking up the nuclear warhead at a space station, they move into position, but suddenly, the “Aatmaghaatee”, the sixth ship (targeted to go through the anomaly), careened out of control.

Our pilot “Wash” managed to avoid a direct impact from the Aatmaghatee, but unfortunately, the least useful “shooter” crew member wasn’t able to maintain his position and fell HARD into the pilot causing the Khudkoshi to swerve out of its path and they went through the anomaly! The spaghettification of the crew and ship was extremely painful and in at least one case (looking at you Jack Shift), it was life threatening!

After drifting out of control for awhile on the other side of the anomaly, they got healed up and then realized the ships on the “Sol” side of the anomaly, either did not get their warheads off, or it failed to break up the anomaly. The crew then decided to complete the mission of disrupting the anomaly from the back side. Again, the least useful “shooter” decided to not take his very best shot…just happy with close enough (probably why he was a terrible criminal). So, the crew does not know if their attempt was successful or not.

Now they are trapped on this side of the anomaly, and after the nuke went off they immediately started to pick up a signal from somewhere relatively close by. Being that they have no extra food, water, or fuel, they decided to get as close to where that signal came from as possible. They found a planet that seemed pretty low tech, even though there was evidence that the inhabitants had at least as much tech as Earth. They landed where indicated and then the crew saw their first aliens…

Crew Members

Jack ShiftDownload
Simon StoneDownload
Adam Hitler (Owen)Download
Lars SolariDownload
Wash Hoban WashburneDownload

Mission: Redemption

Background

In the near future, the countries of Earth have detected a strange phenomenon in space quickly approaching our solar system. This anomaly has spawned some strange areas of space at first considered space storms, but later was confirmed as small space time anomalies most likely, worm holes. The concern is that where these worm holes appear, whole solar systems are being destroyed. There are five basic factions of scientific theory on how to ensure the safety of our solar system, and since time is of the essence (worst case predictions are in the 10’s of years, best case less than 60 years), the general consensus is to try all of them. Most of the theories involve massive amounts of energy needed to essentially divert the phenomenon by 10 degrees. One of them is a more subtle approach. The world could not find enough expendable people to send on these missions (if you send your best, and if they can’t fix it, and if they can’t return…no second chances).

So, the idea was floated to look at criminals that have the necessary backgrounds and either life sentences or more than 60 years to go, to become the crews for these missions. All agreed that serial killers, rapists, and their ilk should not be used, but white collar criminals (your Barry Madoff’s, scammers who have multiple back to back sentences, political revolutionaries, manslaughter, etc.) would be the most effective force.

These “volunteers” would be offered a new life if they are able to complete the mission and return back to Earth safely. Better than rotting away in prison, right?!

Session Zero – Character Creation

I am running a Sci-Fi game using the core rules, the Horror Companion, the Science Fiction Companion and a book called Worm Fire. You won’t need to know anything about it during the first game, but you will for the rest of the campaign. I will have physical copies and will put the player section in DropBox for those who want to read it. The following Setting Rules are being used:

  • Conviction (Core)
  • Born a Hero (Core)
  • Difficult Healing (Science Fiction)
  • Extreme Environments (Science Fiction)
  • Energy Management (Science Fiction)
  • Logistics (Science Fiction)
  • Villainous Conviction (Science Fiction)
  • Expanded Fear Effects (Horror)
  • Signs and Portents (Horror)
  • Dynamic Backlash (Horror)
  • Playing to the Tropes (Horror)

Just make a character using the core rules, Horror Companion and Science Fiction Companion. There are some things you should consider. In order to be selected for this mission you will need to have one or more of the following:

  • Piloting (perhaps an amateur or professional pilot, or past experience in the military)
  • Research and/or Science (always good for someone working in space)
  • Repair (would be nice if you have some experience on planes or rockets)
  • Leadership Edges
  • Good physical condition (although a terminal illness that does not affect your ability to do the job might be a bonus for you!)
  • Shooting (specifically experience with artillery as their may be some manual effort needed to get the missiles on target)
  • Fighting….just kidding, they don’t care if you can fight…they actually don’t want anyone without some control over their actions – so hindrances like impulsive and mean may exclude you…unless you are just so good they can’t find a replacement.
  • Linguist, since this is a world wide effort, people with the Linguist edge would be highly sought after.
  • Healing, you never know what trouble might occur and healing would be needed.

Anything else you can think of that might be useful to a multi-national force attempting to save the Earth!!

I will need a digital version of your character, preferably in PDF format (just print to PDF if you have it in Word or Excel).

More details to come, and I’m hoping using Harrowed Halls posts will make this a little easier and more fun to keep track of the games!

Episode 5

Cast of Characters

The Heroes

Boss Fade: Mike Byrd
Emo: Steve Todd
Jan Janson: Ben Hodgson
Nolan Brilliant: Alex McNeal
Trigger: Owen Harrison

Important NPCs

Col. Jaegar: JC701 Commander
Fang: Smuggler Extraordinaire and Owner of Fangtasia
Tennor Blackfinch: Leader of the Orion Pirates
Commander Harkness: Leader of the Keshig Pirates

JC701: Season 4: Fang’s Regret

Our heroes return to JC701 in time to help prepare for the Keshig Pirate attack. The JumpCorp fleet arrives and the station is upgraded to provide significant additional defenses.

The Pirates surround the station and all hell breaks loose! It’s the JumpCorp Fleet vs the Keshig Pirate Fleet. The plan is simple, send Jan Janson out in a ship to cause confusion and jam up the Pirate communications with his jibbering nonsense, provide a soft middle for the Pirates to attack, then hit them hard from the sides.

At first all seemed to be working ok (well JumpCorp lost 2 to 1), but then the Keshig Commander (Command Hollings) absolutely crushed the Jump Corp Fleet taking out 2 more and not giving up any on the Keshig side. The JumpCorp fleet decided a strategic retreat abandoning the station and reinforcing their stand in the next system was better.

Meanwhile Jaeger sent the heroes on a desperate mission to use the Hypergate to go to the Keshig Pirates core system and find something to help JumpCorp defeat this vast enemy!

The crew managed to break through enemy lines and after shooting down one of the chasing fighters, they escaped the other two and made it through the Hypergate.

Now in the Keshig pirates core system, they managed to avoid detection as the pirates weren’t expecting any enemies to be able to use the gates, and JCS Opportunity was able to land on one of the planets that was least populated, near a station where they hope to be able to tap into the Keshig Pirate network and gain some intelligence useful to JumpCorp.

Episode 4

Cast of Characters

The Heroes

Boss Fade: Mike Byrd
Emo: Steve Todd
Jan Janson: Ben Hodgson
Nolan Brilliant: Alex McNeal
Trigger: Owen Harrison

Important NPCs

Col. Jaegar: JC701 Commander
Fang: Smuggler Extraordinaire and Owner of Fangtasia
Tennor Blackfinch: Leader of the Orion Pirates
Commander Harkness: Leader of the Keshig Pirates

JC701: Season 4: Fang’s Regret

With Emo and Trigger joining Boss Fade and Jan to search the park for the missing Tennor Blackfinch, it seems like a simple matter to track him down. Not so. These particular heroes are rather unorthodox in their pursuit.

When Tracking Tennor (using Survival) fails, they decide to do a bit of Networking. They canvas the park, talking with visotors to find any information on the missing wounded pirate. Emo and Trigger have no luck at all, but Jan, after promising to make a guest appearance at a woman’s six year old boy’s birthday party in a few months, was able to find a general location. Boss Fade had much better luck and was able to get a detailed description of where to go and that Tennor was in some sort of anti-grav sled and being escorted by some construction workers to a new museum being built in the park, dedicated to the Miners who first settled this area of space and had to fight off Rigelian attacks for years before the war ended the practice just a year ago.

The crew took a cautiuos approach to the museum and after hours of delays, one of the Orion pirates just walked out and invited them in. Inside a secret base underneath the museum, Tennor explained that he has little smuggling operations throughout the system and then, calling Fang into the room, filled them in on what had been happening over the last couple of years.

The Keshig pirates are from systems that are vastly outside of JumpCorp known space. So far, that is should have taken decades, if not, centuries for them to arrive with any numbers in this area. However, nearly a year ago, Fang had auctioned off some alien technology that no one was able to figure out, but as it turned out, the buyers were agents of the Keshig pirates and were able to construct hyper-gates. These gates allowed Commander Harkness and her technologically advanced troops to infiltrate JumpCorp space so quickly that no one was even aware of it.

That is until Fang had a pang of regret, letting Tennor know what he had found…and once the fighting started in the Orion Pirates systems, the word got out that Fang had not sold all the technology, that in fact, he had a master key to the gates that would allow him to use any of them without restriction. He was quickly targeted by the Keshig Pirates.

The crew realised that they now not only needed to get the power armor to JumpCorp R&D but also the hyper-gate master key! They quickly made a plan to infiltrate the port, release the docking clamps on their ship and make a run for the key and then back to JC701. The plan worked pretty well, and once they got back to communications range, they found that the Keshig Pirates had started their attack on JumpCorp systems and Jaeger needed them back at the station ASAP to devise their attack strategy as JumpCorp already had a fleet on the way!

Episode 3

JC701: Season 4: Fang’s Regret

Cast of Characters

The Heroes

Boss Fade: Mike Byrd
Emo: Steve Todd
Jan Janson: Ben Hodgson
Nolan Brilliant: Alex McNeal
Trigger: Owen Harrison

Important NPCs

Col. Jaegar: JC701 Commander
Fang: Smuggler Extraordinaire and Owner of Fangtasia
Tennor Blackfinch: Leader of the Orion Pirates
Commander Harkness: Leader of the Keshig Pirates

Our heroes arrive in the Lummoits system, the closest JumpCorp system with a hospital, relative to Tennor’s space station. They burn a ton of extra fuel to get there, but they arrive in time to get him to the facility.

While at the port facility, all seems to be going well for Trigger, Nolan, and Emo, until Nolan notices that the station techs who are preparing to refuel and resupply their ship, seem to be making careful recordings and notes…much more so than is customary…or required. Trigger and Emo try to convince them to leave…Emo leaning toward using his famously illegal plasma gun, until Nolan throws a smoke grenade in his quarters and sounds the alarm that the ship has a chemical quarantine needed. This does get everyone off the ship, but also put the port in lockdown and no ships can leave or dock.

Meanwhile at the hospital, Boss Fade and Jan Jansen have gotten Tennor into surgery and are waiting to see if the docs can save him. Boss Fade notices that the nurses seem to be watching one particular person furtively. He does a check and discovers two things. First, several of the staff at the hospital are known associates of Tennor Blackfinch. And second, this suspicious guy is not listed as a member of staff. Boss confronts the guy and he takes a nurse as hostage. Boss is able to subdue him and Jan arrives later to pick up his weapon. Upon searching the surgery and the rooms, they discover that Tennor is no longer in the hospital. Security cameras picked up some movement on the paths out back of the hospital that lead to a large city park. Even though Jan was sure there was nothing suspicious in the surgery they do find a hidden exit leading out back.

Episode 1 and 2

JC701: Season 4: Fang’s Regret

Cast of Characters

The Heroes

Boss Fade: Mike Byrd
Emo: Steve Todd
Jan Janson: Ben Hodgson
Nolan Brilliant: Alex McNeal
Trigger: Owen Harrison

Important NPCs

Col. Jaegar: JC701 Commander
Fang: Smuggler Extraordinaire and Owner of Fangtasia
Tennor Blackfinch: Leader of the Orion Pirates
Commander Harkness: Leader of the Keshig Pirates

After the events in the prologue, our intrepid heroes (Boss Fade, Emo, Jan Janson, Nolan Brilliant and Trigger) mobilize to find out what happened to Fang. After much investigation (now Research) and Streetwise (now Networking) the team discovers that Fang’s right hand woman, Cynthia, betrayed his scheme to trade some high tech device to the Orion Pirates to some unknown person. This person left the station. Soon after, Fang left as well, leaving Cynthia in charge of Fangtasia while he supposedly returned home.

The heroes know that Fang was found on a planet just inside one of the Orion Pirates’ controlled systems and that Fang was dealing with the pirates so they decided to pay Tennor Blackfinch a call….that’s when things went pear shaped.

When they got to Tennor’s station they noticed all systems were down and there were only a few life signs detected. They docked and began searching the station, and soon discovered many dead pirates…and two men in some kind of Power Armor. Technology not seen in JumpCorp space before!

After a long battle with the two strangers, the team was able to capture a relatively undamaged suit of Power Armor to send back to JumpCorp R&D. They also found a near death Tennor Blackfinch. Determining that his injuries were beyond the skills of Jan Jansen and the limited med bay aboard their ship, they left for the nearest system with a hospital at fastest speed.

Prologue

JC701: Season 4: Fang’s Regret

Bodyguard Brigade on patrol along the Orion Pirate sector, got a distress beacon from a JumpCorp transponder, but not sending an identifying code from a ship or person. The signal was coming from an area normally associated with Trevor Blackfinch. They go to investigate and are attacked by 2 fighters. They destroy one, and the other runs off but not before sending out a signal.

They scan the planet and see a dropship and signs of wreckage. They go down and are warned off by the dropship. They determine it belongs to a relatively unknown pirate faction from the other side of the sector. Very strange for it to be here. They fly off and then approach stealthily from the other side of the planet, landing the ship just outside sensor range and hike in from there.

They engage the pirates in a shootout, taking down most pretty quickly before a pirate in a Powered Armor Suit (something they’ve never seen before) comes out. Also, some pirates get about the dropship and start shooting them. Eventually they take out the guy in the armor and the dropship leaves.

They find the wreckage belongs to a cat people craft and there is a message on a coded line from Fang to Emo and the JC701 crew…he’s calling in his favors, he wants them to come rescue him from these new pirates!

Room 123

Alex spent 5 days at a film camp from October 16 through October 20 working on a movie with an actress from his school. They started from scratch not having any idea what they would do, to making this finished product in FIVE days! The links below are to the moving and to some behind the scenes footage. Please to enjoy…

Room 123

Room 123 – Behind the Scenes