Saturday 21st July 2018.
It was just a just quick hop on the train down to Leicester early on Saturday morning, returning back to John Foster Hall after a long absence.
So the first game slot of Saturday morning I had scheduled my Firefly game, No Power in the ‘verse.
I had a full sign-up sheet so eight players with a reserve too. The sign up sheet had the individual Serenity crew as sign up choices, so that the players could choose who they wanted to play before the game.
I set up in the middle of the main hall, three tables together, so I had enough space for all the players. We had a full crew so all the Firefly characters with the exception of River Tam.
I handed out the character sheets and introduced the system to the players, covering the dice pools, plot points, and the consequences system. I even encouraged the players to add or change additional Specialities (Kaylee having ‘Celebrity Gossip’ as a Know Speciality seems very wrong somehow) as I went off to change.
I put on my tie and waistcoat over my Blue Sun T-shirt, put on my Flamingo badge, and wore my Bowler hat; with my (poor) Cockney accent and was transformed into Badger.
Returning to the game table the players faces dropped on realising they were dealing with Badger.
Badger gave them the deal of a lifetime, the lost ship, Far Horizon, was famous for surveying the ‘verse 200 years ago before it was all terraformed. No one knows where it went down. But the stories have all been retold in the comic books, lazer-vids, and Cortex-plays ever since. Now an opportunity has presented itself as data-crystals from the ship are up for auction tomorrow. They will reveal the last location of Far Horizon and all that survey data that we make everyone rich!
All they have to do is get the right data crystal and the only data-crystal reader on the planet at the Auction House. Easy eh?!!?
The players hit the plot running, Inara, Book, and Simon (with Zoe acting as bodyguard) went to the current auction as high value guests to scope out the site. Wash and Kaylee hacked the computers and ran interference and Mal and Jayne (Jayne got a sweet sniper nest set up) covered the outside. They all learnt the different ‘players’ behind the scenes (two ex-Registered Companions) and the fact that 47 Tong ran the auction house with a paramilitary group looking after the security.
A tough nut to crack but with some risky pick-pocketing (dropping bugs on factions) and calling the Alliance down on another rival. After the triple-switch and a bit of shadow play they got the prize, the right crystal.
Jayne got to use his various ‘flavours’ of grenades at the goons closing in and the whole crew pulled together to escape with the correct data-crystal. Next would be heading out into the black after the lost ship with rival crews after it as well but the game slot came to an end.
Great players and all very good at sharing the spotlight between each other. It was a full team effort to get the results. Had some great portrayals of the characters too, the player of Inara was the only player at the table who hadn’t seen the TV show but the way he acted as Inara was spot on.
A shorter game due to the shorter game slot in the morning.
I forgot to take a photo of the group.
I had a game scheduled for the afternoon slot but there were so many games on offer that I didn’t get any sign-ups. I spend a nice leisurely afternoon in the bar catching up with people and caught two seminars; Historical Gaming and Mark Galeotti’s Organised Crime in RPGs. I learnt so much on the Russian Mafia, the Vory.
A quick dinner from the canteen, salmon on spinach in a creamy sauce- nice!
The last slot on the Saturday started at 20:00 so I had time to set up my table by the open windows in the main hall and get my full set of players seated comfortably. I had six players, three I knew from Derby, the others I have ran games for before.
I was running my Tales from the Loop game Atomic Butterflies and Feral Buddleia.
I covered the *Principles of the Loop* and introduced the setting of alternate Derby in the hot summer of 1984. One of the players had played in my previous game at UK Games Expo but the other five players were new to the game and system.
We got started on char-gen and got some great characters with some very interesting relationships with each other.
So we had the Popular Kid, Kelly Leigh, with her bubblegum, the Computer Geek Lukas Smythe armed with his Sinclair Spectrum Computer, the big older kid was the Jock, Ben, on his BMX, his younger sister, Lena the Rocker, with her ghetto blaster (actually just a cassette recorder), our Hick is Stig and his trusty rough collie, Ruff, and the group’s Troublemaker is Pamela ‘Pam’ Greenwood with her fags and lighter.
The hideout was an old American style silver caravan with a ghetto blaster and loads of mix tapes, fresh food from the farm, a stack of ‘specialist’ magazines along with some ‘Smash Hits’ mags, a telescope, a pile of filled in Doctors sick notes, and the whole place was protected by traps, tripwire, and other hazards.
The character interactions started straight away as the Kids headed to the Meadow to play. They met the Corona pop man on the way and learnt about the missing pets. They offered to look for his missing Toucan Guinness. The players pushed through and past the plot hooks, heading straight for their objective, the Dark Wood. After encountering the titular Feral Buddleia, Ben the Jock pushed Lukas the Geek into the plant’s tentacles whilst Pam the Troublemaker set fire to the plant. Panic ensues and the Kids discover the reason why all the insects, birds and pets have gone.
After smashing their way through the wood, being rude and abusive to an ethereal Lepidopterist, and discovering the burning hole in the chain link fence, the Kids encountered the school bullies, the Winfields!
Running away and avoiding any more plot hooks the Kids retired for the day.
They returned to the fence of the Facility the following morning with the comical moment as the rest of the Kids launched poor Lukas over the fence. More hilarity ensued as the players managed to get me into a fit of giggles due to their PCs antics. And more laughter followed through out the game.
Of course the scenario ends with arson but not before the Kids managed to close down the Atomic Butterflies with the Computer.
A quote from the game; “If you want to make it bigger use Lucas-aid!” Groan.
A great game with some great players adding additional complications and stepping clear of many of the plot hooks in the scenario. Good banter all around and made it a very enjoyable end to the day.
Photo below is of the group. I was still laughing about the game the following day.
With that I made my fair wells and headed back home to Derby.
My crazy notes below.
#Firefly
#TalesfromtheLoop
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