Out There - Session 1
This is the first session report of a new science fiction ttrpg I am writing and running with my in-person group called Out There. The game has PbtA bones, but an attitude towards character skills more akin to something like WFRP or Call of Cthulhu.
The tramp freighter My Ex Husband was a small freelance starship kitted out with an oversized cargo bay for its chassis and a pair of crab-like robotic arms extending from its belly. We joined her crew as they wound their way through the ring of debris circling Egret, the populous, Earth-like planet in the middle of the Mayr system. They were:
- Polly, the ship's captain, former atmo rigger, and divorcée
- Evit, currently at the helm, a smoker and void runner
- Iago, wreck picker and face of the crew
- Bettie, a droid just human-like enough to pass as organic, but only just
The crew had been hired by Lord Cassian Thorne-Vey, a member of the Cornwall Set to acquire a particular piece of salvage. Thorne-Vey had found the buyer for a power coupling orbiting Egret. 40 years ago a colossal jump gate had hung over the planet, capable of launching ships to and from Earth in a matter of weeks instead of decades. Then it exploded. Shards of the ruined gate still spin and collide in a loose ring around the world.
Any salvaged tech found in the ring technically belonged to the Solar Transit Authority, the de facto government of the Mayr system, though they were usually happy to pay a 10th of an object's value as a finder's fee. Thorne-Vey wanted to sell the coupling on the back market; My Ex Husband just had to deliver it to him. Evit successfully talked him up from a 4kcr to 8kcr for the job.
The Power Coupling
The crew found the power coupling close to where Thorne-Vey's coordinates had indicated. It was about 40 meters long, matte black. It had ports on either end, but was otherwise sealed - astonishingly intact. It was tangled in two other pieces of debris that Iago estimated would take an hour in a hardsuit to clear, but there were two other oddities.
First, was a small, diamond-shaped skiff - a one seater only capable of near orbit flight. It was charred black and seemingly fused to the side of the coupling. My Ex Husband could stow the skiff and the coupling in its hold, but it would be awkward unless they were detached.
Second, was a chrome box welded to the couplings side. A small green light flashed on top of it and it seemed to be covered in spray paint.
Evit brought the ship in close and Polly used the crab arms to hold the coupling steady. Iago donned a spacesuit and joined Bettie for a walk across to scope out the situation up close. They left through a top airlock and plodded along the top of the hull to hop across.
Iago inspected the box with the green light first. The spray paint read PROPERTY OF SKUA WING. DO NOT TOUCH. Evit recognized the name of a pirate fleet based out of the asteroids between Finch and Gannet. Iago identified the dice as a tracker beacon that would send an alarm if tappered with. He expertly disarmed it, leaving it pinging but freezing its GPS signal to its current location.
Meanwhile, Bettie went to investigate the skiff. They tapped on the glass of the cockpit and thought they saw a slight movement inside. Before they could investigate further, Evit piped up - an STA cutter, Weather the Storm, was closing. They had their transponder active (this was a legal job after all), so there was no way to hide. The crew sprung into action, planning to cut the skiff free, snag it for their hold, and slink away from the coupling so as to avoid revealing it to the STA.
Sadly, they were too slow. Weather the Storm arrived, painting them with spotlights. The bright orange ship hailed them and congratulated them on the great find, offering to ring up a receipt now so they could haul it to the Egret Highport for delivery. Evit and Iago valued the coupling at 80kcr, but the honest STA captain told them it was actually worth 100kcr, wiring them their finders fee of 10%.
This sparked an internal debate. Should they return the coupling and ditch their contract with Thorne-Vey or swap their transponder with the skiffs and try to get sneak away to get paid twice? In any case, Iago and Bettie cut the salvage free and they loaded it aboard My Ex Husband.
The Skiff
The crew gathered in the cargo hold to discuss, eventually deciding they should at least investigate the skiff before heading towards Egret. Bettie popped a hatch on the skiffs nose, connecting to its internal computer with a finger tip to open the cockpit bubble. Evit readied a revolver.
The dome slid sideways with a hiss revealing a woman in an STA orange space suit holding a gun of her own. Evit demanded she drop the gun. She announced herself as an agent of the Salvage Licensing Bureau and demanded they do the same. Iago stepped in to defuse the situation.
With pistols stowed, the agent removed her helmet, revealing the face of a young woman with her hair in a tightly curled bun. She introduced herself as Agent Priyava Farrow. She had been hiding in the skiff for days, waiting for salvagers to tow the coupling in. Major pieces like this had been going missing from the SLB's inventory and she wanted to track down who the buyer was and what they wanted with something like this.
Polly had done some research on the ship's terminal. A power coupling was used to safely transfer massive amounts of power. The only reason you would need one was to build a spaceship or something on a similar scale. She figured researchers in Egret's academic community or in the stations orbiting Hawk or Ibis might know more.
In any case, Farrow made the crew an offer. Take the coupling to its original hand-off with her stowed aboard and she would void their receipt from Weather the Storm. They'd have to return the 10kcr, but she'd ensure it was worth their while. The crew haggled, but as they did Farrow had a better idea: if My Ex Husband not only took her to the rendezvous, but then tailed the buyer to their final destination she would reward them. Polly, sensing an opportunity suggested she outfit the ship with an advanced sensor array as a reward. Farrow agreed, but said she would need to return the crew would need to return to Egret with her after the dust settled to get the paperwork signed and the ship outfitted.
Iago inspected Farrow's badge. Was she really a SLB agent? Before he could decide for sure a voice rang out over the intercom. "My Ex Husband, you've been tampering with our find. Heave to and prepare to be boarded." Through the cockpit window, Evit could see a dolphin-like vessel, patched and dented with the name Owes You Nothing stenciled on its belly.
GM Notes
Our first session of Out There! So far so good! Player characters have a spread of general skills (like "helm" or "study") alongside an origin skill (like "wreck picker"). I have some concern that when one character's origin skill is live it might obviate the need for other player characters to make rolls at all, but presumably this can be resolved GM side by just making sure that other characters are frequently put on a spot. This both moves the spotlight around and produces a key scifi trope of actions requiring careful synchronization over comms.
The week prior we had a session zero where I introduced the setting and we created the crew and ship. There was some debate about what kinds of jobs to equip My Ex Husband for, which proved really useful for getting a sense of the range of play the players are lookin for. Some wanted salvage and cargo loading (the folks who mostly won out in the end). Others are looking to explore planets in the Mayr System. Others want to get up to some piracy. The goal will be to provide opportunities for all of the above as we go.
Describing events in outer space is hard! The lack of immediate geographic reference combined with how radically active the Z axis is means there is simultaneously a lot less to cover and a lot more space for it to happen in. I found myself really clinging to the salvage, almost framing it as a UI for the session with "icons" the players could engage with - the skiff, the beacon, and the surrounding wreckage.
We have a loose sense of some of the tech. What exactly a droid is like, for instance, is a live question that we'll explore with Bettie as sessions pass. Excited to dig into that!