CoG Mass Effect PnP - Team Prison Break

[Ink Asylum]

As some may remember, I was looking for people interested in a remote Mass Effect Gurps campaign, and managed to put together a four-player group, with myself GMing. We played our introductory session this week (after a few private prologues), and I thought people might want to follow along.

Some background: The campaign takes place after the end of Mass Effect 3. As we don't know exactly how the trilogy will end, I've come up with my own background story (spoiler: Shepard wins) and set the galactic stage for the players. ME3 may contradict what I've written, but if that's the case I'll be forced to ignore the parts that do.

Feel free to comment even if you aren't playing. If you're one of the players, you can use this thread to do some between-session RPing, either as a solo character or with others. There will be exp bonuses for doing so!

Here's your cast of characters:
Walker - A smooth-talking human played by Superman's Dead
Org - A slow-minded but combat-skilled Krogan played by Arphahat
Sera - A tech and hacking specialized human woman played by National Kato
Jacob - A human scientist played by Laughing Penguin

A summary of the first game session to follow.

[Ink Asylum]

One way or another, four strangers found themselves incarcerated in a Turian prison for weeks or months. During this time, the Reapers invaded, and much of the prison staff was called into military duty to fight back, leaving the prison with a skeleton crew.

Unsurprisingly, opportunistic members of the prison population saw this as the perfect time to attempt a riot and escape. With a bit of subterfuge and an ambush, assisted by Walker and Org, the remaining guards were overwhelmed and the control of the prison seized. The Reaper War was already coming to a decisive end, thanks to Shepard, and the Turian military was able to respond quickly, sending several ships full of troops to put down the riot.

Walker, finding the prospect of taking on Turian soldiers unappealing, headed off in search of an alternate exit. Org happened to be guarding the nearest door, but it didn't take long for Walker to use twisted logic to talk his way past, and even lead Org to help. The burly Krogan soon forced his way through a further locked door and into the prison's holding cells.

They weren't empty, however. Sera had been there for weeks as she navigated the Turian judicial system, then further weeks as her case was put on hold due to the war. Left alone during the riot, she'd found a way out of her cell and ambushed Walker as he explored the area.

It wasn't long before they realized they had similar goals and were able to locate a secret passage at the far end of the hall. Hearing the sounds of shouting and gunfire behind them, the three quickly closed the panel behind them. Stumbling through the darkened rock passage they eventually found an elevator. It brought them deeper down until a power outage brought it to a halt, forcing them to climb down the access ladder, narrowly avoiding injury.

The elevator led to a hidden research laboratory currently housing two scientists and their Turian guards. When the power went out the guards heard something in the elevator room and proceeded to investigate. Walker attempted to talk his way past them but they grew suspicious and a more violent solution had to be reached. Disarming and holding the guards hostage, the prisoners had themselves brought to the exit. Along the way, Jacob, who had been assessing the situation, came forth and asked to be join the escape.

After activating an auxiliary generator for the lab, the Turians led them into the hangar bay, which held a small transport ship. Leaving the guards behind, the four prisoners boarded the vessel. Although Jacob had flight training, the Turian controls were unfamiliar to him, and a less than graceful takeoff into a snowy canyon alerted a Turian ship which began to pursue them.

Chased through a winding canyon with little visibility, Jacob struggled to keep the ship from crashing into the rock walls, while Org fired behind them from the gunner seat, Walker attempted to bluff their pursuers, and Sera disrupted the Turians with some remote hacking. Unfortunatley, one too many of the Turian's shots connected, leaving the ship's mass effect drive damaged. However, the military vehicle abandoned pursuit upon being summoned back to reinforce the prison, leaving the team to hobble into space.

Finding themselves in orbit around the planet Aequitas, but unable to leave the system until they repaired their drive. Hiding out on a nearby unpopulated planet, unable to fix the engine themselves, Sera sent a message to some contacts who were able to dispatch a repair team to their location. After fixing the engines and changing the vehicle's identification information, the team was free to explore, although the ship still wasn't capable of making a mass relay jump.

With few prospects, they agreed to sell the ship and lie low on the world Invictus in a neighboring system. Ostensibly a Turian-controlled world, due to political maneuvering Invictus acts as a border world between the Terminus Systems and Turian space. Packed with smugglers, other shady business, and millions of undocumented immigrants, it promised a safe place to hide until the team could figure out their situation.

Ending up at Shastinasio, an ever-expanding desert city in the sands and the largest on the planet, it wasn't hard to find a shipyard willing to buy a suspect vessel for cash. Sera and Jason negotiated a decent price, along with some changes of clothes for those still in prison gear, but told the others that they'd gotten less, keeping the difference for themselves. Whether the others believed them is unclear.

The session finished with the four escapees renting a pair of suites at a nearby hotel run by an amicable volus. What will happen next? Stay tuned!

[TheKeck]

Heh, very cool. And this was all in one play session? So very different from the play by post method we use. :p

Anybody want to give a quick synopsis of the game I run? :D

[Ink Asylum]

Yes. This was all accomplished in one game session, about three hours of game time. There were a few tech hurdles, as I was on a horrid hotel wi-fi and couldn't use the usual shared map tool for the same reason, but despite having to repeat myself sometimes over Google Hangout (we had 5 people in there, with varying degrees of lag) things moved smoothly.

I tend to keep combat to a minimum, which allows for a lot more story progress. Some sessions might involve more critical fights which may eat up a half hour to an hour, but only when necessary. There will almost always be a way to avoid combat if the team wants to take it, even if it means surrendering. I'm trying to run a sandbox campaign so there's no real game over scenario unless everyone dies. Getting arrested, captured, or mugged and left for dead just means the story heads in a different direction.

[TheKeck]

Very nice. I'm jealous. If I thought I could commit the proper time to this I would have been one of the first ones to volunteer to play. Alas... I'll have to stick to the snail mail version. :p

[Ink Asylum]

Very nice. I'm jealous. If I thought I could commit the proper time to this I would have been one of the first ones to volunteer to play. Alas... I'll have to stick to the snail mail version. :p

We're going for a conservative one night a month for three hours. Even that has been tricky with various time zone differences, job responsibilities, and familes. Would that be impossible for your game?

[TheKeck]

We're going for a conservative one night a month for three hours. Even that has been tricky with various time zone differences, job responsibilities, and familes. Would that be impossible for your game?

Well, for my game I'm content to keep it as play by post. I suppose I could probably swing once a month if I put in the effort, but it would still be a challenge. :)

[diablopath]

SD was telling me about this the other day.

It sounds as awesome here as it did in the brief talk we had.

I'm so hard for Mass Effect.

[Ink Asylum]

I'm glad he enjoyed it. :) This is my first time GMing for people outside of my usual circle of friends, so it's great to get a positive response.

[Hawkzombie]

Aw crap...how did I miss the casting call for this :(

[Ink Asylum]

Aw crap...how did I miss the casting call for this :(

The post was up for a good couple weeks before I closed applications, and I even had it in my signature for a while. Sorry that you missed it.

I think four characters is the upper limit for me, but if any players drop out for some reason or another I'll open it up again to others.

[Ink Asylum]

For the players

You spend a week or so enjoying your newfound freedom while also keeping a low profile. Room and board for one week for each player will come out to $250 a week. You can pay for this out of your personal funds, or you can get a job. We'll be picking up the next session after that first week.

If you'd like to find some short or long-term employment, let me know, publicly or privately, what kinds of jobs your character would be looking for, and I'll let you know what they find. The city is big, with plenty of blue collar work to be found in the outer districts, but more professional work available in the city center.

You can also consider how your character spends their free time during that week. If you aren't going to get a job you'll have 12 hours a day to do your own thing. If you take a job you'll have 8 hours alongside a part-time job, 4 hours alongside full-time.

You can use your free time to do tasks related to your character and their motivations. Let me know what you'd like to do and how. Be descriptive and roleplay! I'll make the necessary rolls and let you know what the results are.

Free time can be spent studying one of your skills, if you can find a way to do so. You need 200 hours to get one point in a skill. You can study in one of three ways:


Using the skill as part of your job results in 1 study hour per 4 hours of work.
Self-teaching results in 1 study hour per 2 hours of training.
Being educated by someone with the Teaching skill at 12+ and at a higher skill level than you results in 1 study hour per 1 hour of education.


Here's what you learn about Shastinasio after a day or two:

By far the largest colony on the planet, with a population into the tens of millions, Shastinasio is a marvel of resourcefulness. Situated above a natural, immense underground water source, it stretches across the sands for miles in every direction, buildings kept low due to unsuitable foundations. The deep red metal used in a majority of the construction, sturdy but lightweight material harvested from the planet’s moon, has given it the nickname “The Wound.”

A Turian central government maintains order, but turns a blind eye to non-violent criminal activities, primarily the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and other contraband. Slavery, however, has no place on Invictus, so Batarians are a rarer sight here than in similar places like Omega.

The desert city expands outward from a central district, Emperus, the one most under Turian control. The largest and sturdiest water derrick juts upward from the sands, surrounded on all sides by progressively shorter buildings. This is understandably the busiest part of the city, with more rigidly directed ships of all shapes and sizes arriving and leaving near constantly. The larger central buildings typically house businesses and professional workers, with warehouses on the outer rim.

Outside of the center, districts sprung up in radial slices, often segregated by race or industry. This layout was encouraged by the establishment of a wheel and spoke-based public transportation system, keeping commuters and internal transport underneath the swarm of arriving and departing ships.

Largest districts:

Tenvis - Turian - Lower caste
Facinus - Salarian
Brevit - Volus
Doctrina - Science Research
Fabricart - Manufacturing
Mercor - Trade

Greenfield, your hotel, is located in the Mercor district, near the outer edge of the city.

In addition, you finally get some real news about the state of the galaxy post-Reaper invasion:

Humans: When the Reapers attacked, humanity was their primary target. Earth suffered the most destruction and casualties out of any planet, although other colonies were also hit hard.

Multiple Reapers entered the Sol sector and large numbers of Alliance ships followed them to defend the heart of humanity. Aside from defending Earth, a huge battle was fought at the mass effect relay, during which the relay itself was apparently disabled by a Reaper. The Sol system and a significant number of their military forces were physically locked away from the rest of the galaxy, and remain that way today. Communication is still possible, but only through the few Quantum Entanglement systems available. Engineers and scientists struggle to fix the relay.

Turians: As the largest military force in the galaxy, the Turians were hit nearly as hard as the Humans were. Instead of trying vainly to defend every threatened Turian planet, the Hierarchy gathered as much of their fleet as possible that wasn’t committed to defending the Citadel, and started at Palaven, moving from there to other besieged worlds. As a result, the Turians were left with less military damage than other races, but many of their worlds were brutally assaulted by Reapers.

The refugee situation on the Turian worlds is immense. Millions stream from the outer planets to seek shelter and resources on Palaven and the Citadel. Although the situation is desperate, the Turian culture of self-sacrifice and domestic work has helped maintain stability.

Asari:While the Asari homeworld was also targeted, their military tried their best to defend as many worlds in Citadel space as possible, leading to more military losses than their fellow Council races. Post-invasion, they’re focused on repairing the damage done by the Reapers.

Salarians: While suffering similar losses as many other races, the Salarians have made the best of a tragedy and are at the forefront of the effort to study the Reapers to better understand their high level of technology.

Krogan: While faring pretty well against the Reapers, the Krogan were not in an exceptionally strong position prior to the invasion, thanks to the genophage. After the war they were left in an even worse state. After losing numerous Krogan females there are worries that extinction is a real possibility. Rumors abound that there is a cure for the genophage but the Council is withholding it, still fearful of what a completely unfettered Krogan race might do to galactic balance.

Others: The Terminus systems and Batarian space were relatively unscathed compared the rest of the galaxy. While not completely untouched, the initial invasion waves targeted the biggest threats. A few of the more populated planets, including the Batarian homeworld, suffered Reaper assaults and heavy losses, but much of the region barely felt the affects.

In the chaos the Batarians managed to claim a number of worlds in the Skyllian Verge that had been Human colonies, strengthening themselves as a potential threat to Alliance space.

Omega, as an independent station, was not attacked. As refugees from Terminus outposts began flowing into the station Aria instituted a lockdown, increasing station security. No one is allowed to set foot on Omega without buying a costly visa, and approaching ships risk being shot down if they fail to comply.

Let me know if you want specific information, and I'll let you know if you can find that out. Either here or via e-mail.

[Arphahat]

I've been looking for this thread for a couple days and was surprised I missed it this morning. I had an awesome time and am looking forward to the next time... *looks at all the envious faces*... uh, yeah, it was, uh, pretty lame. *big knowing wink at Ink* :p

Hey, it was getting late and the connection got flakey; was my character annoying anyone? Let me know if he is, since the point is that it is supposed to be enjoyable for everyone and I don't mind adjusting the char as necessary.

Amusing fact: my simple-minded, intimidating, gun-loving Krogan is likey the "good guy" of the group.

Edit: More stuff

Dunno if Ink is a good GM in RL, but on the Webs, he is the best I've encountered. Possibly, the medium of webcams lends itself well to rpg-ing, since the temptation to fuck around is reduced, but regardless, good going, Ink. :)

Low profile, eh? Not for this super star. After relaxing at the bar for a bit, he inquires about the need for a bouncer/musician, as he has learned this combo is the easiest way for him to get on stage... for some reason. If not at the hotel bar, then he scouts around looking for that type of work, while also purchasing/assembling a R'Trala for his performances. When he is not at work, he is happy to spend time at the bar for pleasure.

The skills he would likely be learning on the job would be brawling, carousing, intimidation and R'Trala performance, divided however you see fit. Additionally, he spends his off time both practicing and writing music, so those would fall in the "Self Teaching" category.

Walker seemed to have some ideas involving Org, and it is likely that he may pursue those, depending on how it is "sold" to him.

As the idea for my char is an open and trusting type, I'll likely just post the response to your questionnaire email here in the public.

[Superman's Dead]

For the record, Walker did not use twisted logic to get Org to open the door. He just lied. ;)

Work has been a killer these last few days,, but I'll be up to speed soon

Sent from my I897 using Tapatalk

Edit- holy shit, org is a musician?! Hahaha! Arphahat, you and I should just get married now and get it over with

[Arphahat]

For the record, Walker did not use twisted logic to get Org to open the door. He just lied. ;)

Work has been a killer these last few days,, but I'll be up to speed soon

Sent from my I897 using Tapatalk

Edit- holy shit, org is a musician?! Hahaha! Arphahat, you and I should just get married now and get it over with

Hey, yeah... I would totally be all over getting married, but I already am, so I'll have to pass. Thanks for the offer, though. :p

Why, is Walker a musician as well? Actually, let's do it like this:


Org returns to the room that he shares with Walker, carrying an interesting contraption. At first glance, it appears as if he is carrying a mishmash of guns - assault rifles and such - in his arms, but at a closer look, it is clear that the various "weapons" are actually all connected to each other and to a power cell.

When asked about it, Org explains, "Itsa R'Trala! You never hear of it? It is instrument that only the Margarth clan has and you are in for a real treat!"

With that, Org powers up the instrument, positions his right hand on a series of triggers and the left on a series of switches. When the music begins, you are momentarily concerned that you are under fire, until you realize it is the R'Trala making the noise.

Org, however, is really getting into it and is clearly happy with the sound. Once the initial shock of the sound passes, you can hear that there is a song there, and that it is kinda catchy, but nothing you'd really like to listen to. Perhaps the R'Trala is an acquired taste, or perhaps Org needs more practice with it. You suspect that the answer is "both."

After finishing, Org turns to you expectantly.

[Sera]

After a few days and nights holding court on one of the Greenfield bar's well-worn stools, catching up on long overdue drinking, savoring the taste of alcohol and freedom, listening in on drunken conversations, fending off breathy solicitations, and curiously watching Org construct whatever the hell abomination he was taping together, I decide to venture out into Mercor and the larger city.

Spending my first day people watching, listening, and generally getting a feel for the place, I try to piece together what I can about Shastinasio, how the city runs and more importantly who runs it. Within a few hours, I figure out where the best and most private terminal cafes are. Taking a break from the heat, I duck into one small establishment and pick a seat in the back, where it's dark and no one can look over my shoulder. The cafe smells of sweat and a sharp, rich odor seems to be bleeding through the wall from the adjacent Volus restaurant. The combination is nauseating, but it has kept the patrons out and I have a row of terminals to myself.

Pulling up the generic mail program, I write my sister a letter:

Dear Sis,

Guess what?!

I'm writing you from the quaint .Greenfield Inn, a small .hotel situated in the trade district of bustling .Shastinasio - also known as 'The Wound' for its red metal buildings. It's smack dab in the middle of a desert on ,Invictus in the Fortif system.

I'd have written .three days sooner, but news of escaped $inmates on a nearby prison planet ^with in the system had .me so frightened I didn't dare leave the hotel to use a terminal. Did you know this city has sections segregated by race? . One is even a :Krogan ward right next to =two ^Human wards! It's all very exciting!

I could get .attached to a place like this. Mysterious, busy, remote...If I had a way, I'd record it all and *file it for when I next see your smiling face. Now that the problem on .Carcera is old news, I can send you more ,information of my adventures in this strange new place. I bet the >warden put his foot down ~and the .Turian guards said 'enough!' Haha...that reminds me of the time you weren't too ^qeen on getting .involved with Dad's surprise birthday party. Do you remember? . In the summer all those years ago? He had grounded you for going to that >biotic protest the week before? You started disrupting his .experiments with your omni-tool in retaliation? Remember how he had us all together in the solarium and yelled 'enough!' over and over until we both couldn't stop giggling? That's how I imagined it happened at the prison. Silly, but I think of things like that every now and then and it makes me miss you even more.

I know you worry about me, but I assure you I am .ready for most surprises. I'm not the little girl you once followed around like a shadow. I have my omni-tool $for the small things and plan on keeping myself busy with a data ^job when I can. I don't know, for now it'll do...and I'm not good at much else.

I miss you so much, Sis. Take care of Mom and Dad and write back soon!

Love love love,

Sera
I embed trace signal errors in the message that, upon delivery, seem to corrupt the message. I encrypt a file and interlace it in the message header, burying it deep from anyone who doesn't know what to look for. I'm actually pretty proud of my work as this terminal is missing quite a few of my more beloved extensions and apps. It sure would be nice to be back on Omega using my old workhorse at the apartment...this rock is far too open for my tastes. Just stay in the city, Sera, and you'll be fine. I hit send, get up from the terminal, and head back to the Greenfield for a drink.


.

[Superman's Dead]

Today is the day I handle all RPG business. I'll be sending emails to Ink and Arphahat, but I'll update this post a bit later today with Walker's day-to-day business.

[TheKeck]

Today is the day I handle all RPG business.
Rubs hands together.

[Laughing Penguin]

Today is the day I handle all RPG business. I'll be sending emails to Ink and Arphahat, but I'll update this post a bit later today with Walker's day-to-day business.

Yeah, i'v e really been slacking on this too. October was just a bit hectic for me so I haven't really done much yet. I plan to remedy that soon...

[Ink Asylum]

Great! Glad to hear it. Once everyone has posted I'll make a post here with public info, and reply privately as well.