Star Tracks 2025

 For Spacer: 180 we've been trying styles of space-based campaigns. Of the three tried so far, the homage to Star Trek has been best suited for the group's norms. 

Session 1: Diversion to Drejj
Players-Characters:
Brett- Chief Syiak, Science Staff, Vulcan ( Kaalish)
Curtis- Tactical Captain (3rd in Command), Zorro "Captain Hawk" Halcon, Human
Robin- Rebel Sluggon, 2nd Sphere Psychic, Skit, yung-Sluggon
Summary:
On a routine patrol to Memphis Star in the Concord Federation, the USS Pacific was diverted to a desolate section of interstellar space by a distress call from a registered United Space (registered) star-freighter, GuppyWolf. The Pacific's Captain, Wilbur Q. Proust, led a Response Team, after objections by his Tactical Officer Captain Hawk, to save the vessel. Proust and his away group, all NPC cutaway scenes, would actually be dealing sluggon mind-pirates making them think that they were dealing with an omnipotent entity known as K leading them down various moral dilemmas of Earth history.
Meanwhile aboard the Pacific, the space marine and Syiak would be dealing with mun-Sluggon raiders boarding the ship, while a yung-Sluggon agent disguised as an Andorian sabotaged their endeavors. 
Skit, a Sluggon rejecting its species misuse of psychic abilities, making its livings as a black-market smuggler, its cruise-skiff Sittleblurr, seeing the Pacific  under attack by several small vessels but not responding, would attempt to contact the other PCs. Results would be marginal.


Session 2: Battle for the Pacific
Players-Characters:
Brett- Chief Syiak, Science Staff, Vulcan ( Kaalish)
Curtis- Tactical Captain (3rd in Command), Zorro "Captain Hawk" Halcon, Human
Summary:
The Pacific was being boarded by about dozen very small vessels, but because many of the raiders were Sluggon mind-pirates, most of the Space Fleet members were unable to detect the incursions. Syiak and Captain Hawk would have to find the infiltrator in their midst to start to repel the boarders. The pillaging of the United Space Service DERP-class vessel would take a bit of time to get a handle on. Specifically, it was because of bad rolls.
Then when things were just about under control, Captain Proust and his Response Team would return to the ship with their lasors blazing under the mental hallucination that they were saving the universe from space-whale hunters. 


Session 3: The Trial
Players-Characters:
Brett- Chief Syiak, Science Staff, Vulcan ( Kaalish)
Curtis- Tactical Captain (3rd in Command), Zorro "Captain Hawk" Halcon, Human
Ben-  D'Tak Doctor of Dentistry, Gifted Psychic, Rigelian (Neptunian)
William- Dr. Stuckinorbit Chief Physician (5th in Command) of the USS Pacific. 
Summary:
At Space-Base 36, Hammurabi, in the Gammon Sector, USS Pacific, is docked. It is at this very large, as in very, very, very large, space station the scenario took place. It is here for the trial of Captain Proust for the charge of Murder of Two United Space Fleet members, during events after the Battle for the Pacific . Despite a well stated plea on his defense by Chief Syiak before the episode playing out, the charges had to be dealt with. 
While all the players were ready for the trial, they had to deal Sluggon agents trying to set up assassination attempts on the three Judges of the proceeding. This went well.

Session 4: No Force Fields
Players-Characters:
Brett- Chief Syiak, Science Staff, Vulcan ( Kaalish)
Curtis- Tactical Captain (3rd in Command), Zorro "Captain Hawk" Halcon, Human
Ben-  D'Tak Doctor of Dentistry, Gifted Psychic, Rigelian (Neptunian)
Summary: 
Once again in the Dash-Dass system, the Pacific was there to serve a warrant on a group of USSA dissidents that were trying to provoke a war between the USSA and the Namo species-dominated Gorn Space. Suddenly the asteroid where the "Sovereign Citizens of USSA" were hanging out exploded. On the other side of the debris field was a Gorn gunboat. Our quick thinking starship crew noticed that the other vessel seemed as surprised as they were. Syiak using his science skills, notice that something moving at almost the speed of light had shot through the mass. He also noticed that his immediate boss, Lt. Janine Thurman was hot-- 'oh crap' was his thought. He was entering pahn farr.
Captain Proust would assemble a Response Team to board a shuttle and check out the debris field, he would be teleported away by aliens with heads that looked like poached-eggs onto another planetoid. There he and the reptilian-looking Namo captain were expect to fight things out. My dice rolling indicated neither NPC chose to do so. Once again Captain Hawk in charge of the ship, had to send out the Response Team, without him. D'tak would insist on coming. Of course the shuttle collided with the incredibly fast ship. Hawk  would barely get the Pacific out of the way. Syiak and Lt Thurman had slipped off into a work closet to do some biology. 
Aboard the wrecked shuttle, D'tak was the only survivor. He was able to make his way into the other ship. There he met the pilot, which we'll a roach person until I think of a better name. She could not fly the experimental vessel because of dental problems, her smart juice was mostly corn-syrup with hormones. Our space dentist made quick work of it, and was able to make it back the Pacific. Captain Proust was also returned by the Poached-Egg Heads(until I think of another name). Syiak and Thurman left the closet minutes apart from each other. Captain Hawk just sighed-- I'll have to focus on some action for him next season.

 

The game sessions are supposed to be episodic, often consisting of Characters that do not make it every time, and new people will pop in for just one time leading to "guest stars." The problem is for the GM and steady players is there each session there is a lot of administrative pauses for helping the new Characters get up to speed and whatnot. Still the Star Tracks campaign was the smoothest of our video sessions to date.

Everytime at the Table: Halloween 2025

   
   While previously planning to do Wobble session last night, around Wednesday (October 29th) I suddenly wanted to composed a Hammer horror film-style adventure. So by the next day, I scripted a quick scenario, what I'd call a  "room-crawl"  with a mystery to solve. So I announced "Assault on Castle Vulgarr" on Thursday and welcomed any player back to Blegovia (17th-19th themed horror).  Now I expected a couple regular players would be showing up, but this apparently excited a couple others.  Imran, from India, as well as S.  Dresser, an old friend from New Hampshire days, decided to show. Iron Curtis showed up wearing his best dress to top things off. 

So the main roles were the Inspector, the Fortune-teller, and the Scientist. Through random draws, Dresser was the Scientist; Peryton (Robin) was the Inspector; and Curtis had to fill the role of the Fortune-Teller. Imran was there to watch. Curtis's fortune-teller looked awesome in their purple dress. Later Kal Luin (Brett) showed up ready to play. I didn't bother with character creation, he was an interloping English consultant arriving to tell everyone already in the game how things should be done.

So we started out with a strange murdering of multiple people, a family, so the Police-Watch of the city couldn't just file it away. The Inspector found those closest to the deceased, namely the Fortune-teller, and, after concluding that they were not guilty, arrested them. A decision not only historically accurate, Robin's decision was wonderfully apt to 'get the party together.' She was about to arrest Dresser's Professor, when the English-Consultant, played by Brett, showed up. The combined PCs not only coped, they made the story rather awesome.

Things ended up at Ostruk Vulkarra, A vampire was defeated after all but one of the Party was slain. I was surprised that any Player-Character survived. 

GenCon 2025: We Still Don't Jump the Shark...

 the Shark Jumps Us

Something about the old carpet

   
   Robin (Peryton) flew into town on Tuesday, which made doing things that one does for Wednesday at  GenCon fairly easy, that is buy badges and have a per-convention party. Walking past the Will-Call line to the GM HQ was, as always, fun.  Mark Hunt author and owner of Gangbusters RPG since about 2015(?) showed up for dinner, which topped off the night with Kevin J, Natalie, Kal Luin, Doug Jean (Zack), John Bennet and John's new gal Kirsten. GM Badges distributed and drinks had, this year's PeryPubbers, Mark included if he wants, let GenCon begin-- we voted on it even.

Peryton and I had to park a mile from the Kentucky border of Indiana to get parking, Thursday AM. I about lost my German card for being almost 15 minutes late for "Gotham City Major Crimes: The Secret Ingredient." For a scenario with Condiment King as main NPC, I had some perfect players. One in particular does gigs with a band called "the Spice Boys" and his stage name is "Sage."  The group also inspired me for next year's GPDMC scenario as well.

For the record, con pizza was had for lunch

I would also run Crawlspace: 21 and Over in the afternoon and evening with the tales "Ten Minutes Alone" and "Musical Gravestones." I was lucky enough to have many return players which means that I should have brought my popcorn because they did all the work. While it sometimes felt like a CAT 5 hurricane going on, wrangling the PCs into some sort of paced plot, I have only myself to blame. The rules system is designed to let people go wild. The PCs did make the sessions true B movie horror classics. 

 For some reason, Friday was my easy day. Running only a Qalidar session in the morning and then Crawlspace that evening. Peryton and I watched John run his Gangbusters game. I also met a fellow named Tyler that was American but living in Italy(?). He was running Arcanis a system and we talked in-depth about the 17th Century. Already speaking with Pedro Barrenechea(sp) about the system, it would one of two purchases of the con. Then some pizza happened with John and Kirsten. Of course, when "Dancing on Graves" came up, Doug Jean played Dug the Camera Guy and did his best to emulate the previous night's stress level for me. So after a bit of presenting the dilemma, I  called upon the adage "when in doubt, zombie out" for the climax. Being a small group with intimates like Michael Springer, Peryton, and Doug's wife Rae-Rae, it was still a comfortable get-together. I think we all stayed around and chatted for another hour.

I'll admit it. Saturday was hard on me. The day started at 8am. A mistake on the scheduling but I liked getting to a parking space early and cheaper. Cheap enough for Peryton to Uber herself down that afternoon and still beat parking fees for the other two days. 
 The early session was Wobble so that was easy enough and the players were old-school like me. I enjoyed Doug, John, Mark, and Craig getting my 70s sci-fi references throughout the course of "Port Spoons: Anew." Mark was a great technobabble guy and Craig helped me run the game even.

Not pictured is Craig. PLZ contact me

While I was tired, the player's for Crawlspace's "The Spirit Box" a couple of return players got everyone into the mood for some good old fashioned werewolf action. Things got campy and great by the end of it. Peryton showed up and helped me get myself ready for the final session with CONVENTION PIZZA! 

To make things easier, the Spice Guys, from the "Gotham City" scenario returned to help me keep things smooth for "A Horror of Rooms." My fake nephew, Liam (The Boy!), and two other kids (Aden and Jenna), as in under 20 showed up as well. So I banned any mention of whiskey to keep things age-appropriate. One of the kids chose a bag of cocaine as his carry-on item for his character. Spice Boy Sage at least hid is heroin in his novelty bat. I was supposed to go to 11pm, but by 9:30pm and everyone having been spooked at least once, I "zombied out." The death scenes were decent I heard. The Boy! wanted to hang but I was flaking and Peryton's feet needed some doctoring. 

We didn't go Sunday. Instead we stayed in my neighborhood and did the movies and just a bit more pizza. Scientists that we are, Peryton and I were experimenting with can one have too much pizza in one long weekend. No conclusions yet. We're still experimenting. 

The secret hiding spot for good con pizza at the Convention Center

Quick Maps: Star Tracking "Battle for the Pacific"

 

Star Tracks 2025: (fifth page) The U5S Pacific

 

The Mercury Class star-vessel is the most common for DERP echelon missions

U5S NKC25 the Pacific is one of six "Patrol Speed" vessels in the Charlie Quadrant (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta... and so on) of the United Star Systems Alliance. The area happens to be one that Earth Central is charge though Terrans only make up about 30% of the starfaring populations in it. Its how the USSA does things. Having the less than dominant species in a sector take responsibility for defense and order while their homeworlds are looked after by their peers brings understanding and trust to a whole new level. 

The Pacific
Designed to be deadly and never be too close to port. Capable of FLAT drive as well as Interstellar Travel speeds 1 through 5, maybe 6 (Warp).

Ship Stats:
Mass: 160
Speed: 75
Maneuver: 100
Offense: 90
Defense: 120
Armor: 80

Prepping for the Table: Star Tracks 2025-? (fourth page)

 Travel Speed- 1 through various higher numbers depending on technology aboard the starfaring ship. Often called "Warp," the number following the mode is how many light-years are traversed in ten hours. "Travel 1" equals one light-year in ten hours, and so on. 
An Astronomical Unit, or just "Subspace"- Around 93 million miles traveled in the course of ten hours.
Half Subspace- A unit of Subspace traveled in twenty hours. This is known as "Patrol Speed," when vessels are scanning the areas around them.
Orbit- The spacecraft slows down enough to maintain what is colloquially called a "stationary orbit" around a larger object.
Fall- Speeds where the spaceship is effected by the gravitational forces of the masses around them. Also called "Pond Speed." 



Navigation

Hawaii Zero
   Earth's interstellar maps are considered some of the better maps that aren't kept secret by their makers of known space. Earth Central is the starting point of the official United Star Systems Alliance maps. Coordinates are in order of the X,Y, and Z axes. and those integers are where locations are in comparison to "Hawaii." The Sol Star System the center, if not actually at its center, of the USSA and home of the U5S military and governmental ministries. 

Space Routes
   Most of the time straight lines just aren't helpful. There's a lot of stuff that just is in the way. On top of that the stars and whatnot that are visible to planet's night sky just aren't where they appear to be anymore. Now that Faster-than-Light travel is actually a thing, finding out where the objects are in real time (so to speak) takes a lot of exploration. So because of this, starship exploration of the galaxy tends to resemble the Age of Sail, where gravitational masses moving along varied vectors replace currents and environmental conditions. 

Prepping for the Table: Star Tracks 2025-? (third page)

"Golden" 
    Space Fleet crew wearing gold uniforms are at the top of their class so to speak. Commanding star-faring vessel is in their plans. (Player-Character must have an ACC above 16)

"True Blue" 
    Space Fleet crew wearing blue uniforms are very accomplished scientists. They might even have a whole lot more training than the other crew around them.  (Player-Character must have an INT above 16)

"Green Beans"
    Space Fleet crew wearing green uniforms quite proficient in their fields of practice. They do, though, tend to be extra hands outside of situations concerning their specialties.

"Redheads" 
    Space Fleet crew wearing red uniforms are drilled in tactical proficiency and trained in Engineering. Most are bucking for promotion into the Golden and aren't afraid of some conflict to get there. A smart few really dig engineering. 

"Tangerine" 
    Space Fleet crew wearing orange uniforms are very accomplished warriors. They might even have a whole lot more training than the other crew around them.  (Player-Character must have an STR above 15)








Star Service
   It's not all Space Fleet in the USSA parts of the galaxy. 

Space Fleet "FLEET" Ranks

Admiral- 10
Commodore- 9
Captain- 8
Executive- 7
Lieutenant- 6
Chief- 5
Senior- 4
Junior- 3
Crew- 2
Recruit- 1

Tactical Force "TACFOR" Ranks

Marshal- 10
General- 9
Colonel- 8
Major- 7
Captain- 6
Commander-5
Sergeant- 4
Corporal- 3
Troop- 2
Boot-1

Colonial Integrated Institutional "CIVI" Ranks

Governor- 10
Representative- 7
Mayor- 5
Agent- 3
Local- 2

The Alliance Way
After the Tantrum Wars of the 21st-22nd centuries and the overreactions of the 23rd Century's Earth Central "revolutions," the Terran system needed to evolve. Luckily humanity had met enough alien species to realize perhaps their human problems were a bit exaggerated in the scheme of things.  
   The United Star Systems Alliance (the USSA) is done with arguing about structures of power in its interstellar territories among its leaders. Assigned ranks accompany any branch of the USSA Star Service. When orders from Central Command are absent, up to ten leaders of disparate groups will come together to discuss how they want to handle whatever is going on. This is within a predetermined time frame set by the two highest ranking individuals attending. No branch will be excluded from the decision making and all the highest ranking representatives must be present. The ranks of those leaders will determine how many votes each of those participating has in comparison to the other participants.