Planetary Travel and Turn 11 (5 Parsecs From Home)

This is a step-by-step breakdown of the eleventh Campaign Turn and Mission in my Five Parsecs From Home campaign. 

This Turn's battle was much less epic than the previous two Turns. That's not a complaint. I'm happy there's so much variety from one Turn to the next. Plus, as you'll see below, this Turn we made our first trip to a new planet, and that was a really compelling and interesting part of the game that I hadn't gotten to see yet. I'm very pleased with how the game builds stories organically and constantly serves up surprises.

Crew names below are often abbreviated G to M, as explained in: Crew Roster, which also tells you about my team and a bit about their ship. See also the Index of my Five Parsecs articles for a list of previous Missions and other content.

 

Pre-Battle:

This is my first time relocating to a new planet. Buckle up and stow your tray tables, because the next few steps are going to be quite involved.

1.1 Flee Invasion: - n/a

1.2 Decide Whether to Travel: - Yes, we're headed to Tiresias-3, a planet also known as "The Soup". Fuel costs 5 of our 16 Credits, leaving us with 11.

Leonidas again announces his intention to stay behind, as he has decided space is not for him and Aceso Menrva Prime is pretty nice. This is from a character event that was rolled up for him several Turns ago. Per the event, I can spend a Story Point to make him change his mind, or I can let him go and I can keep his equipment.

In the end, I decide to spend the Story Point. Why? Because his listed Motivation (rolled up in character creation) is Loyalty. He'd rather stay on this cushy planet, but he'd feel like a cad if he ditched out on his crew while this whole Q'narr situation hanging over their heads. Per the Story Track, Q'narr has hired AbsuCorp and Blood Storm to hunt down the crew of the Rhapsody, and Leo can't walk away while that's standing.


1.3 Starship Travel Event: Down-time: It’s a long time to just sit here. Select a crew member of choice and add +1 XP. Well, if Leonidas is sticking with us, I might as well make his decision worth it.

The crew has time to do maintenance tasks, and can Repair 1 damaged item with no roll required. Moreva fixes H'Xex's Combat Armor.

1.4 New World Arrival Steps: -

I roll for all our Rivals, and it turns out The B'Lilu Gang of K'Erin Outlaws hate us enough to chase us all the way to The Soup.

The Fellowship of Temporal Philosophers are Persistent, so they have a branch office on Tiresias-3. All our other Patrons are left behind on Aceso Menrva Prime.

Licensing Requirements:

Freelancer License - Required, and will cost us 1 credit.

Salvage License Required (this is from the Salvage Jobs expansion, which is a 2nd Edition supplement, but is mostly compatible with 3rd Ed, and I'd like the challenge and mission variety, so I plan to use it before this campaign ends) - Salvage Laws roll is: Salvage Rich Environment.  Increased chance of Salvage Jobs being available. Local Salvage Licenses cost 5 Credits. Universal License is recognized, and would cost 30 Credits.

We spend 6 Credits on the two License types. We are now down to 5 credits, having started the Turn with 16.

I'm using the "Wild Galaxy" optional rule, where each World gets 2 World Traits, instead of just 1.  The World Traits here on Tiresias-3 are:

1. Planet-Wide Fog - All shots beyond 8" are -1 to Hit.
2. Booming Economy - When rolling for post-battle credit rewards, any 1 on the dice are rerolled until it shows a score other than a 1.

So now that we're actually on the planet, it's time to use my Cargo Bay and all the fun delivery items I've picked up in the first 10 Campaign Turns.

Cargo Hold - "The hold of the ship has been upgraded to be environmentally stable. When traveling to a new planet, you may take on cargo. Roll 2D6 and discard any 5-6. Select the highest remaining die and earn that many credits from delivering a shipment to the new world. If both dice are discarded, no shipments are available. If your ship is damaged in transit, the cargo is also lost."    - I roll a "6" and a "3", so we make +3 Credits with default Cargo, bringing us back up to 8.   

(Now, you could argue the Cargo Hold isn't worth the investment it takes to build one on your ship. Travel between planets happens rarely enough that you're only going to come out ahead in a really long campaign... but it's a fun element that just packs so much sci-fi flavor that I really wanted to give it a try. And now that I've got one, I may be tempted to planet-hop unnecessarily, just to fill out my corner of universe. During crew creation we'd rolled up "We are best characterized as: Living the dream!" so this seems like a good choice for Roleplaying reasons at the very least. I might also consider getting the Hidden Compartment installed at some point, as they have good synergy together.)

Inshubur and Moreva each have a Delivery Package gained from Character Events. These sell for 3 each, and then you roll a die for each. On 1-2 you gain 1 Rival and 1 Story Point.  - I roll a "1" and a "5". So we gain 1 Story Point, 1 new Rival, and 6 Credits (bringing us back up to 14). I roll twice on the Unknown Rivals chart and get my choice of Zealots or a Salvage Team. Both sound interesting, but since I just bought a Salvage License and am in the middle of unloading a huge load of cargo and scrap, it makes the most sense that some local Salvage Team sees us muscling in on their territory, and doesn't like it.

We also have  2 x Trade Goods: Every time you arrive on a new planet, you may roll 1D6 to see how many Credits the goods will sell for here. You can wait as long as you like, but if you roll a 1, they have perished or become damaged, and are now worthless.  - I roll double 5's!  That's 10 more credits (bringing us up to 24).

And we have 1 Personal Trinket: On each planet you visit in the future, roll 2D6. On a 9+ you find the owner and receive a [Loot roll] (p.131) as payment.  - I roll "1" and "6", so this doesn't pay out just yet.

I have 3 credits worth of Debris and Scrap to sell as well. It came from a "Battlefield Finds" roll. Normally, you just mark it as Credits immediately, with the sale happening as part of the resolution of the end of the battle, but my previous planet had Import Restrictions that prevented selling it (or anything) there. So that's +3 Credits more (bringing us to 27.)

I also have some unused crew items I'd like to sell, but the rules indicate I have to wait until the Post-Battle Step "Purchase Items" to sell those.

Lastly, we have Vital info from a previous battle: "Turn in this information to get a Corporate Patron automatically". I roll up the possible standing Benefit for the Corporation, and get "Health Insurance", so I decide the company is Chariclo Cyberoptics. This info was taken off a Blood Storm Mercenary body, so it's probably some damning evidence that Blood Storm hit one of their CyberEye export vessels.

So, we started the Turn with 16 Credits, spent down to just 5 remaining between fuel and licenses, and then sold cargo of various sorts to get us back up to 27 credits. We spent a story point, then gained one. We ditched one rival, then picked up a new one. We did leave 5 of our 6 Patrons behind, which is going to sting a little, but overall it was a good start to the Turn. Most importantly, moving to another world means we can progress the Story Track, and it was fun to see all the transit rules and use our cargo bay.

1.5 Gain 1 story point if it's turn 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, etc. -  not this time.

2.1 Upkeep and Ship Repairs: -
Crew Upkeep - Would be 2, but I have "Basic Supplies" I can spend instead.    Ship Debt - 0    Ship Repairs - 0    Medical Care - 0

2.2 Assign and Resolve Crew Tasks: -
Find a Patron - I,G    Train - L    Trade - H, K    Recruit -    Explore - M    Track -    Repair Your Kit -     Decoy -

Noteworthy results from Tasks: -

Leonidas trains, and buys his first point of Luck. Now five of my seven crew have Luck!

Trade for a Glare Sword, and some Spare Parts.

While exploring, Moreva meets a new Patron and is offered a Job.

Juniper can't perform a Crew Task this turn because she got into an argument with the crew late last Turn about people not being punctual and timely. We'll see how they like it!


2.3 Determine Job Offers: -

There's three Patron Jobs on offer this turn. Two from the usual route, and one from Exploration.

The first is from a Edmark Creon III, a Wealthy Individual. He would be potentially Persistent, but this missions Condition is a One-Time Contract, so we'll actually never see him again. Danger Pay is minimal. This Low-Priority job would be to Move Through some Black Dragon Mercs, and keep an eye open for notably Shiny Bits. It's only available this Turn.

The other, a mission from our old friends at the Fellowship of Temporal Philosophers, is a lot more appealing. Danger Pay is significant.  A Private Transport is offered so it can't be interrupted by Rivals. It's a straight-up combat mission against Warbots, with a Priority Target. (Given the Patron, it may be time-traveling warbots.) All in all this sounds much better. Unfortunately, it's got the Condition of "Reputation Required". I can't accept this Mission until I've successfully completed some other Patron Mission on this world. I may decide to pay a Story Point to waive that, given that I've done a Mission for the Fellowship of Temporal Philosophers on another world. The mission is available on a wider Time Frame, valid until Turn 13, so I might not have to spend it if I do the less sexy Creon mission first.

Later, while Exploring, Moreva learns that Cerberus Alarm Systems needs someone to Protect their Corporate VIP on a planned negotiations with a band of Skulker Brigands that have been giving them trouble.  Right up our alley, but unfortunately this job also Requires a Reputation. It's on an open-ended unlimited Time Frame, thankfully.

2.4 Assign Equipment: - As a reward for sticking around when he was sorely tempted to stay on the other planet, the crew gives Leonidas the new Glare Sword.

2.5 Resolve Rumors: - When I get to this step, I remember that we actually had a Quest chain start off at this step in the previous Turn, and I never really rolled up anything more about it than a random name. I'll roll up the first Quest Mission now:

We'd extracted a data file from the files in the Cultist compound that had been infiltrated by Q'narr's Blood Storm Mercs. The data talks about something called "The Xanthous Soul from the 5th Dimension". That fancy name is random nonsense I rolled up here... I mean, it's a totally legit meaningful Quest. That's it.

Quest Mission 1:  Objective: Search (Put a token on each medium or large terrain feature. A character in contact with, inside, or on the feature may search it as a Combat Action. Roll 1D6. A 5+ finds what you were looking for, and you Win. If the roll fails at every location, the item is not on the battlefield, and the mission cannot be Won. If you drive the enemy away, simply add up the remaining features and roll the dice all at once to see if the item was here.)   Deployment Condition: Poor visibility (Maximum visibility is 1D6+8”. Reroll at the start of each round.)  Enemy: Interested Parties: Corporate Security.


2.6 Choose Your Battle -  Rolled a 3, so neither of our 2 Rivals on this planet harass us just yet.

I'm hoping to launch into a Salvage Mission soon, but clearly the right call this Turn is to take Edmark Creon III up on his Job offer. If we can successfully complete it, it will open the door to the other Patron Missions available to us.


Job Description:
1. Potential Patron:  Edmark Creon III  Type: Wealthy Individual B5+ H8+ C8+   Benefits: not this time   Danger Pay: +1 Credit,   Time Frame: Turn 11 Only   Hazard: Low Priority (Reduce Enemy force numbers by -1.)   Condition: One-time Contract (This Patron cannot be retained as a contact.)    Enemy: Hired Muscle: Black Dragon Mercs

 
Battle:

Planetary Condition: - Planet-Wide Fog - All shots beyond 8" are -1 to Hit.

Notable Sights:  Shiny bits: Gain 1 credit.

Objective: Move Through (You Win the mission if at least 2 crew members move off the opposing battlefield edge. If you drive off all enemies, you Win as long as you have at least 2 crew members remaining.)

Enemy Type: - Black Dragon Mercs

Numbers: +1 (adjusted to +0 because of Low Priority mission hazard status)   Panic:1-2     Speed: 5”     Combat: +1     Tough: 5     AI: Tactical  

Hired Muscle: PCs are -1 to any attempt to Seize the Initiative.
Stubborn: They ignore the first casualty of the battle when making a Morale check.

2 regulars with Military Rifles , 1 specialists with Fury Rifle,  and 1 LT w/ Military Rifle + Blade


Deployment: We set up in the South, aiming to exit off the North end.
There's a bunch of water on the map, so wading through that will be difficult terrain. We'll assume the walkways are elevated on posts and pylons and have a railing on them. Anyone on or behind them is in cover against shots coming across. Climbing up on to a walkway from anywhere but a stairs will cost 2 inches (which is pretty cheap, actually, given that you're probably getting close to an inch of forward movement as well as the height boost).

Enemy sets up in the North. There's only 4 of them, and Tactical AI says to split them up into 3 teams. It also says they try to stay close to friendly figures, so I consider only splitting them into 2 teams of 2, which seems smarter. Then I remember my goal is to get past them, so it's more of a challenge if they're covering their entire table edge.

Green arrows are PC movement. Red arrows are Enemies maneuvering. The orange arrow is Enemy reinforcement that shows up after Round 2.  Note that the Sniper on top of the dome, and the warbot near the top show up mid-game, not at the start of the fight.

Round 1: -

Seize the Initiative:  Moreva's 3 in Savvy is enough to get the jump on them. (Rolled an 11 on 2d6+3-1.)

Quick Actions - Great initiative roll. All but 1 of my characters can advance. The Kid shoots, but misses because of the Planet-Wide Fog. Inshubur can't get a clear line of fire because of the bench on the platform by the western dome. H'Xex jump-belts forward the central ruin, and despite the fog manages to hit the Fury gunner, but only stuns him.

Enemy Actions - Fury gunner misses H'Xex, but the LT manages to stun him. Black Dragon regular advances on the west, and the one in the east shoots at the Kid but misses.

Slow Actions - Leonidas moves forward, and takes a shot at at the enemy LT. Despite the fog, and the intervening cover from the walkway, he gets a lucky roll and the Enemy LT goes down.

Panic Test - Because they are Stubborn, they fight on.

Enemy Ploy on a "1". It is triggered, so I roll on the Ploy table from the "Tricks and Guns" PDF (I got it through the game designer's patreon).  SNIPER!!! A new enemy with a Marksman's rifle is placed on top of the tallest piece of cover that no PCs are near. He's laying flat on the hex-frame of the northeast dome. The sniper's got special rules for morale.


Round 2: -

Quick - Another solid initiative roll. Inshubur advances around the west side. She shoots a Merc, but just stuns them and sends them over a railing.

L, K, and J all fire on the Sniper. Even with two of them Aiming, it still takes all three to shake the sniper loose. We score a single hit, and it's enough.

Enemy - The villains settle in to cover and open fire, but all miss. The fog makes long range shots pretty unreliable.

Slow - H'Xex shakes off his stun and gets into cover.

Panic Test - I roll a "3", so they hold firm.

Roll for Battle Events between Round 2 and 3 - "Enemy VIP: A Unique Individual immediately joins the enemy force. Place them on the center of their battlefield edge."  They've got a state-of-the-art Mark II Security Bot!

Numbers: +1 (adjusted to +0 because of Low Priority mission hazard status)   Panic: Fearless     Speed: 4”     Combat: +2     Tough: 5     AI: Guardian    
Targeting AI: May fire twice per round at the two closest visible targets. If only one target is visible, only one shot is taken.
Robot Body: 6+ Saving Throw.


Round 3: -

Quick - Juniper aims and lines up a shot with the bipod on her Plasma Rifle. She takes out the Fury gunner.  Inshubur also gets a lucky shot that frees up the western edge of the map

Enemy - The last Black Dragon Merc fires at the Kid and misses. The Security Bot heads towards the Merc to team up and Guard him. It takes 2 shots with its Fury Rifle (one at L, one at K) but both miss.

Slow - Moreva shoots at the bot, but misses due to fog. The Kid shoots at the last Merc, and kills him. H'Xex jump-belts up to the Bot and breaks it into pieces with his Shatter Axe.


Analysis: 

 The Planet-Wide Fog definitely made the fight a little longer, but ultimately my team has enough skill and equipment to overcome it. The Black Dragon Mercs did not, even with Aiming and Fury Rifles. We did miss more than normal, but still hit more often than the enemies.

The Sniper Ploy sounded scarier than it played out. The Ploy mechanic is cool overall, but it feels like maybe it needs to be a little more aggro to get the intended effect. At least in the case of the Sniper, it feels like they should shoot immediately upon be placed on the map. Instead, it follows the usual timing rules, which meant with a half-way decent Initiative roll you're likely to get half your crew shooting at it before the sniper acts. That seems backwards from the standard sniper narrative. I did get a good initiative roll that turn, but since Ploys are a mechanic you add mid-campaign as a way to boost difficulty, it seems likely that you'll usually have strong Reactions on several crewman by then. I pointed this out to the designer on his Discord. Since the current Ploy mechanics are playtest/patreon, not final version, who knows? Maybe we'll end up with something a little nastier when they officially see print? That would be cool.

There are some other optional rules (in the playtest files on patreon or discord) that I could use to enhance difficulty, and I think I will start utilizing those (especially the "Hit Me Harder" option) with the next mission.

My Bad: I didn't figure this out until after the battle, but I was actually playing the Merc's "Tactical AI" incorrectly. The wording is pretty subtle, but it turns out the statement "If they have a clear shot and are in Cover, they will remain in place to Aim" has a precise meaning for 'clear shot' in that context. For them to sit still requires both themselves in cover and the enemy to NOT be in cover. So the ones on the west and east flanks should have moved around more, instead of holding still and firing. It makes their behavior a bit more involved than Cautious or Defensive AI.  I'll have to remember that for next time I'm up against Tactical AI. I'd been using a cheat-sheet that just paraphrased the rulebook, which made it even obscured.  It's hard to say if doing this right would have made the mission harder or easier, it's probably a wash. Aiming gave them better odds to hit, but they never managed to land a wounding blow so it didn't really benefit them. Getting closer might have changed who their targets were, or eliminated the planet-wide fog penalty.


Post-Battle:

4.1 Resolve Rival Status: - I rolled high, so they do not become Rivals.

4.2 Resolve Patron Status: - This is a One-Time Contract, so I do NOT get to add the Wealthy Individual to my Patron list. It does however contribute to my "Reputation Required" Missions being unlocked on this world, so that's good.

4.3 Determine Quest Progress: - N/A

4.4 Get Paid and Benefits of Success: -  5 credits total (3 for winning, +1 for Danger pay, +1 from Notable Sight)

Planetary Condition - Booming Economy - When rolling for post-battle credit rewards, any 1 on the dice are rerolled until it shows a score other than a 1.

For notable sights that are unclaimed during the battle itself, I have a special house rule I use, where each surviving character can roll 1d6+Savvy, and if any of them get a 6+, we get the notable sight. That way, it's not 100% guaranteed if I ignore it to focus on the fighting. I took the gamble this time, and won.

4.5 Battlefield Finds: - My fourth dose of the consumable "Still". I always forget I have these. Still gives you a bonus for shooting, but costs you your movement. It's actually probably worth using on this foggy world.

4.6 Check for Invasion!: - N/A

4.7 Gather the Loot: - On the body of the Sniper, we find a Tracker Sight: "+1 to Hit if you fired at the same target during your previous round."

4.8 Determine Injuries and Recovery: - No one was KO'd.

4.9 Experience and Character Upgrades:  G.0 H.4 I.3 J.3 K.4 L.4 M.3   - First Kill: L    Rookie: K   Unique: H

Laboring in this thick atmosphere does a lot to toughen you up. Inshubur raises her Toughness to 4. Juniper cashes in one of our two single-use Instruction Books to get the final XP she needs to raise Toughness to 5.

The Kid continues to practice his quick-draw, raising his Reactions to a 4.

4.10 Invest in Advanced Training: - Some of these are really starting to look interesting. Soon.

4.11 Purchase Items: -  I sell a handgun, a shotgun, and a military rifle, for 1 credit each.  This brings our total to 34 credits.

Time to invest in a Starship Modification. We install a Shuttle and corresponding launch bay.  This will help with starship travel and escaping planetary invasions. Those are both pretty rare, so I mostly got it so that I can drop a shuttle onto the map during deployment. I sometimes struggle for how and where to set up my minis during the game. Deploying them in a way that's really tactical feels like easy mode and kind of against the spirit of the Seize the Initiative rules, so I've been considering placing my shuttle on the map at the start of each Mission, and deploying my people within a few inches of it. That seems like a good compromise, a thematic win that also helps keep me from making too much progress on Round 1 of a fight. The shuttle costs 15 credits, leaving me with 19 in my stash.


4.12 Campaign Event: - The sector news networks are awash with rumors of war. While you remain on this planet, any roll for Invasion is at +2.  (Suddenly, just like that, I'm feeling real good about buying that evac shuttle.)

4.13 Character Event: -  Juniper has had time to reflect on her adventures. Earns +1 XP.

4.14 Check for Galactic War Progress: - N/A

4.15 Tick Story Clock: - 1 (currently on track for the next Story encounter on Turn 13)

 

Black Crusade / Broken Chains / Free RPG Day

This past Saturday was Free RPG Day, and my local game store asked me to run a demo in their store of one of the free modules they'd be giving away. Sounded like fun, so I signed up to run the introductory scenario "Broken Chains" for the upcoming "Black Crusade" RPG.

Before I dive in to what I thought of Broken Chains and Black Crusade, I'd like to take a moment to thank Greenlake Games. They were really invested in the whole Free RPG Day concept. They had tons of product to give away, and packed gaming tables into every square foot of space they had available. They were especially nice to us GMs. I walked home with a stack of freebie adventures, a commemorative d6, and a coupon for 25% off my next purchase and a free Iron Die. Very cool of them.

Now on to Broken Chains and Black Crusade...  

• SPOILER WARNING - Plot points of the adventure (as well as mechanics of the game) are discussed below. Read at your own risk.

Black Crusade is the next iteration of the ongoing Warhammer 40k RPG. This version is from the point-of-view of renegades of Chaos. 40k has always had a thing for anti-heroes. One of the major conceits of the setting is a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" perspective, where the agents of the Emperor do horrible things in the name of saving mankind from itself. Black Crusade focuses more closely on that aspect of the setting, by having the players take on the role of the legions of Chaos. The PCs in this game are the very demon-worshiping psychic psychotic heretics the rest of the game line is trying to save humanity from.

Black Crusade uses mechanics adapted from Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, and Deathwatch (the three other 40k RPGs currently in print), which in turn use mechanics adapted from the 2nd Edition of the Warhammer Fantasy RPG. Now, personally, I would have preferred it had it used 3rd Ed Warhammer's rules, because I love the dice and it plays fast and easy. 2nd Ed is a bit clunkier and old-school-ier, and not nearly as familiar to me these days. 2nd Ed is grittier, but certainly not easier.

The demo version reduced the mechanical complexity a little in various places, and I very intentionally played fast and light with the system myself. I cheated the initiative system a little, skimped on the die modifiers, and kept the combats short. Several of my players were clearly interested in taking it the other direction, however, and would have been happy to use the full system with all of it's many combat modifiers and special actions. In retrospect, I wish I'd anticipated that and spent some time refamiliarizing myself with the options available to them, as it may have enhanced the gaming experience for more than half the table. That said, I think everyone had fun, and at the end of the night I got thanks and hand shakes from strangers, so I don't think it bombed by any stretch of the imagination.

It's worth noting that this is a very lethal system. We actually only ended up with 1 PC getting hit at all during the game, but despite his thick Space Marine armour and his genetically uplifted Toughness stat, that single hit ate up about 80% of his hit points. Most of the PCs would have died from that blow, and it came as a surprise attack from ambush so it's not like anyone could really avoid it.

This brings up a few related issues I have with the game system.

I'm not certain the game concept is particularly well-suited to the high lethality nature of the mechanics. One can argue that in Dark Heresy or Rogue Trader, much of the crux of the game is in avoiding gun battles. It's a dark, deadly world and the PCs should try to manipulate situations so that they don't end up fighting except when they have a strong advantage (or no other options). They've got the authority and power to push people around a bit, and should be engaging in as many social conflicts as physical ones. Death Watch (the space-marine version of the 40k RPG) certainly features less talking and more action, but the PCs are compensated with power armor, heavy weapons, and redundant bio-engineered organs. Black Crusade features a mix of PC types - armoured Chaos Marines, wild demon-possessed Psykers, and social-oriented Apostate Heretics.  The gap between the combat-focused and social-focused PCs is pretty wide, and quite quickly lethal. As renegades, you lack the support and authority to leverage conflicts away from combat. And if the party has even one Blood-God-worshiping berserker in its ranks, the squishier characters aren't gonna have much luck avoiding fights.

The adventure did include some special threats intended to challenge the parties heavy-hitters, but as mentioned above my first die roll of such nearly vaporized the toughest PC. There's a steep curve to figuring out system balance and encounter design given this PC mix, and any mis-step is likely to result in quick character turn-over. So while I appreciate that some efforts were taken to address this in the adventure, I really found the system far too lethal and unforgiving for my tastes. What's more, there just wasn't any justification within the adventure for including the non-beefy PCs. 3 out of 6 characters were geared for combat, and 3 out of 6 were decidely not. Of those 3 non-combatants, only 1 really ever had anything to do in the adventure as written, and the other two completely lacked a moment to shine.

Now it may be that that particular gripe is well addressed and balanced in the main rulebook. I'm not sure how, given what I saw in the Broken Chains intro adventure, but it's possible. I imagine doing so would probably take some high-end social and support powers, but such powers just weren't evidenced in the sample characters provided with the adventure. The closest I saw in this adventure was a character who had the ability to add +1 degree of success to all her successful social rolls. This sounds impressive on some abstract level, but as near as I could tell it did nothing in the adventure. There really wasn't any point in the scenario where you needed a particular level of social success, and the abbreviated start-up rules didn't offer any suggestions of what the in-character difference was, either. The difficulty chart was of no help, either, merely telling me that a "challenging" roll was +0 and a "very difficult" social roll was at -30.

This was further complicated by environmental factors around the first likely scene in the scenario where a social roll was going to be of use. The PCs wake up in a derelict spaceship that's been drifting for generations; most of the people they meet are half-mad cannibals who attack on sight. The first NPC they meet who actually has any clues to what's going on is down in the bilges. He lives in the sewers of the ship, hip-deep in noxious sludge and dedicated to the God of Plagues. My players looked at the entry point to his lair, and the three socially-competent characters decided to wait outside. The  combat-specialist PCs, being Marines, were equipped with full environmental suites in their power armour. So the three beefy kill-happy PCs marched into the muck, and engaged in a "don't ask, just kill" policy. The NPC with all the info is non-human, disgusting, murderous,  and yet a push-over that "in no way is supposed to be a challenging fight". The PCs got the thing they new they needed from him and ripped him apart (long before any mention could be made of him knowing roughly what had happened on the ship in past 200 years and who had woken them from suspended animation or why).

Even had the PCs tried to get info out of him, a lucky Intimidation roll would have done it just fine, so again the Marine characters are all you really need. This is, sadly, a recurring theme of the adventure. I guess you need the fallen Tech Priest character for the first scene or two as well, but once the PCs have all their equipment back (they start unarmed), everything after that can be solved with nothing but brute force. Given this as the "introduction" to the game, I don't have a lot of faith that the finished product will feature mechanics or advice intended to make the squishy human / social characters viable.

For that matter, I gotta say, I don't feel this adventure was a particularly good introduction to the game. Don't get me wrong, I actually think it's great way to start a campaign, just lousy at it's role as a one-shot introduction to the setting.

Here's the plot: The PCs wake up from suspended animation in a prison ship, having missed the riot by 200 years. They have to battle generations of prion-infected cannibal savages, a couple of creepy demons, automated defense systems gone haywire, and eventually the team of Inquisitors who were also woke up about the same time as themselves at the opposite end of the ship. There's some mystery stuff going on in the background, but if you don't have time to explore the vessel in its entirety, that won't really matter. Eventually, the PCs make it to the bridge and battle the Inquisitor. Assuming they win, they can pilot the ship to the Screaming Vortex (or some other Renegade gathering) and gain a buttload of Infamy Points for "capturing" a mile-long Imperial ship. It's a great place to start a campaign, and early success will reward the players with a huge creepy ghost ship that can serve as a long-term plot device or setting. Other than a lack of balance for the squishy humans, it sounds and plays great.

Problem is, it gives you absolutely no feel for what the session of Black Crusade is likely to be like. I imagine very few sessions will start with the PCs waking up in a prison. The likely enemies of the PCs, Imperial troopers and citizens, are almost absent from the scenario. Part of the charm of Black Crusade is presumably going to be that you get to play the rebels and renegades, but that streak of rebellion was almost entirely non-existent in this scenario. It didn't feel like you were playing the "bad guys" either - every NPC they met was more depraved and less civilized than even the PC berserker.  There are two demons in the scenario, but no appreciable word count is spent on any sort of Faustian deals that would have illustrated that the "heroes" of this adventure are supposedly in bed with Chaos.

So there was lots of genericly 40k-ish theme and flavor, but nothing about the Broken Chains adventure made it feel particularly "Black Crusade"-ish. While reading (and later GMing) this adventure, the thought that crossed my mind was that everything but the first and last scenes could have been run identically for a group of loyalist Imperial PCs in Dark Heresy or Rogue Trader. Have the PCs be Inquistor Crane and his Acolytes, and make the encounter at the end be against a group of Chaos Marines who escaped from the hold, and everything in-between could be identical. In fact, I kind of suspect this adventure was first written (or at least brainstormed) as Dark Heresy scenario, and then converted to Black Crusade as an afterthought when it was realized that the marketing opportunity known as Free RPG Day would fall just a month or so before the Black Crusade release date.

I still enjoyed it (a lot, actually), but I don't feel it gave me any particular insight into what a typical session (or campaign) of Black Crusade will be like. Which means that as an introductory adventure to the upcoming game, it probably fails. As a generic starter-seed for a slightly atypical campaign of any of the four 40k RPGs, though, it's a success. Enough of a success, actually, that I regret running it as a one-shot. I kinda wish I'd hand-picked a play group and used a slightly expanded and modified version to start up a campaign of something. In our one-shot, we didn't get anywhere near the end of the adventure, but we did see enough of the ship that I couldn't reuse the concepts in another campaign without having to dream up a whole new ship and scenario. Whatch ya gonna do?

Scions in Space!

A few minutes ago I posted some handy facts about re-entry and vacuum-exposure on one of my other blogs. Here's how it relates to Scion:

If pushed out the airlock of the spaceshuttle, a Scion would have four factors to deal with:

1. Hard Vacuum: 6B/Action, Trauma 5
2. Heat: 4L/Action, Trauma 3
3. Cold: 4L/Action, Trauma 3
4. Asphyxiation: 1 unsoakable bashing per 30 seconds after (Stamina+Fortitude)x30 seconds
   

If they were in a shadow, the Heat danger would go away, but the trauma value of the Cold danger would increase. The Fire Purview could render you immune to the heat. An astronaut in top physical shape (8 to 10 dice on Stamina+Fortitude, Bashing Soak of 4 or 5) could survive for a couple minutes with some lucky die rolls, but eventually they will die.

A Legend-4 Scion with Epic Stamina 3 would have 4 auto successes plus at minimum of 3 dice on the rolls. He'd have and a minimum Soak of 5 Lethal, 6 Bashing. And he could hold his breath for 8 times that of a Mortal with his mundane stamina. So, he'd stand a good chance of being unharmed until he'd spent at least 12 minutes in earth orbit. He'd be immune to the extreme temperatures, rarely take damage from the vacuum, and eventually die of oxygen deprivation somewhere around the 16-minute mark.

Re-entry is another matter. Damage would likely be 12L/action, Trauma 10. It may even be Aggravated - I tend to think not (since fire does only Lethal in Scion), but it could be argued. I'm unclear how long you'd be subjected to that.

Impact, upon landing is 25 levels of Bashing or Lethal, depending on where you hit down.

A Legend-7 Demigod with Stamina 6, Epic Stamina 6 (and therefore Soak of at least 6 Aggravated, 19 Lethal, 22 Bashing) and Fortitude 1 could survive in outerspace unaided for at least 58 hours (210,000 seconds before taking any damage) and then survive re-entry and impact.

Built (and advanced) to maximize for this, including maxing out your Legend and Stamina during both Character Creation and Demigod Upgrade, plus putting all your XP into Legend, a starting character could get to that level of Soak in about 6 sessions.

The PCs in my campaign are about 20 sessions in, and thankfully nowhere near that min-maxed.