January 5, 2018 – Dicehaven

Red Dwarf by Justv23

Captain’s Log: Stardate 1253.01

“We’ve received a message from the civilian exploration starship Ventura that their long-range shuttlecraft called the Susquehanna has gone missing in the Carina Nebula, deep within the Taurus Reach. The Susquehanna was investigating an unusual alien signal that originated from the nebula on the newly discovered Class M planet Seku VI when all contact was lost. We have been ordered to enter the nebula, find the shuttle, and determine the origin and cause of the alien signal. Starfleet has also advised that Romulan and Tholian ships have been sighted in the region, so we should exercise caution since they may well have detected the alien signal as well.”

Characters

Lieutenant Bennett (the Human Chief Medical Officer, played by Bailey)
Lieutenant Commander Abossas Zharath (the Andorian Chief Of Security, played by Mason)
Commander Cort Ranier (the Human 1st Officer, played by John)
Lieutenant Commander Brev Chasch (the Tellerate Chief Engineer, played by Jeff L.)
Ensign Sevek (the Vulcan Science Officer, played by Jeff M.) (Not Appearing in this session)
Captain Gregory Konstans (NPC)
Lt. Commader Chen (NPC, Transporter Room Engineer)

Episode Summary

Captain Konstans summons an away team aboard the U.S.S. Darius, a single-nacelle, Saladin class starship patrolling the Taurus Reach. He dispatches a team of 3 to beam down to a Class M planet recently discovered nested in the Carina Nebula. The Darius had traced the ion trail of the lost shuttle Susquehanna to this location. Heavy electrical interference in the atmosphere is making reads on the planet difficult, but a clearing in the perpetual storms allows to take the shuttle Defiant and hazards the storms down to the site of interest. The team first investigates the communicator signals and found the two hapless scientists (Scientist Eloy Pedigrew, and Scientist Henry Watson) dead from a transporter malfunction, partially beamed into the ground.

A tricorder scan of the area indicates three notable areas of interest.

Two kilometers to the North are trace signs of the lost shuttlecraft.
Three kilometers to the Southeast, a trail of smoke (barely visible in the red, dim horizon) snakes up into the sky.
Six kilometers to the Southwest the tricorder picks up a chirping signal consistent with the signature of the alien signal the Ventura was seeking when it dispatched the shuttle the Susquehanna to investigate.

Investigating the crashed shuttle Susquehanna, the away team is immediately attacked by 2 Romulans. Due to their superior training and tactics, the Starfleet officers manage to stun the Romulans. The Romulans are beamed about the Darius, and the away team then takes to skies to investigate the next site of interest.

The episode ends with the away team’s shuttle being struck by a massive energy surge and the shuttle plummeting down planetside just like the crashed Susquehanna had done previously!

Momentum, Threat, & Advancement

0 Momentum at end of session
1 Threat at end of session

Tools Needed

Rank Chart

“Stay In Character” Sign

Cheat Sheet — People/Places/Things Cheat Sheet

Player stand — Stand for character sheet (not sure this is practical given the current room on table)

GM Tools — I’ve got a host of GM tools (name tables, techno-babble tables, sector map, etc.) I’ll be creating

Behavior Changes

Talking over people — I think we still talk over each other and it will be distracting

Rabbit trails — Need to avoid tangential discussions not related to the story

Eating at the table — We should restrict eating to the breaks

Table Noises — Avoid dropping phone on table, crinkling water bottles, excessive shuffling of papers, etc.

Standard Terms

Session — An evening of play. Target is 3 segments per session. Games start at 6:30pm (activities at 6:30pm include leveling up, podcast logistics discussion, and other off-air activities). Recording starts around 6:45-7pm. Segments record from 7-8pm, 8-9pm, and 9-10pm. Session ends around 10pm.

Adventure — An adventure arc of approximately 3-6 segments, run over 1 to 2 game sessions.

Segment — aka an Episode. 45-55 minutes of roleplaying which close on a satisfying ending. Each segment will eventually be packaged as a Podcast Episode. Followed by a 5-10 minute break.

Episode — Individual segments packaged up as an Podcast episode. Follows the Season # + Episode # format naming convention, e.g. ‘Vanguard S1E01’ or ‘Vanguard: Season 1, Episode 01’.

Notes from 1/17/2018 Discussion

We will publish an org chart of characters and setting information.

We will post a summary of podcast rules in the room where we podcast.

Season One — have both a Primary and a Secondary character.

Season Two — One of your two characters is likely to die, and the other one you carry forward. You’ll create a new character of the type (Primary or Secondary) you don’t have. You’ll have again have a Primary and a Secondary character at that point. Any time a character dies, you replace them with a new character of that type.

Stan starts off as the NPC captain. Pretty quickly, Mason becomes the new captain for Season 1. We plan on John S. becoming captain at the beginning of Season 2. Idea is that seasons run around 6+ months and end with a big milestone event, after which time the current captain gets promoted, killed, or otherwise is off-stage. Character who was the captain before comes in with a new character at much lower level (maybe an Ensign).

Whoever is playing the captain does the podcast intro. and reads the captain’s log ‘boxed text’ that kicks off an adventure. So the poll results are moot at this point.