The Players- Andrew, Dani, Kellan (whose name I hope I am spelling right), and Martin

The Setting- Colony Glough on Planet Bibeault

Drive- Status

The colony had devoted so much of its energy into construction that food production had been sorely neglected and the presence of megafauna (including sabretooth cats that reproduced via spores that fed off biomass and grew very quickly) meant that hunting and gathering were quite difficult. The governor and other elites never seemed to suffer from food shortages though. The Dimber Damber and a few other convicts tried to remedy this by theft and trade with one of the pre-eminent “businessmen” of the colony. Things went south pretty quickly. The Dimber Damber’s room-mate, who was one of the primary smugglers, accidentally outed him to his brother.

The Judge Advocate (the Governor’s sister) had him arrested. Most of the marines she brought with her turned on her. Meanwhile, Captain Sharp and Juline, one of his chief agents, decided that it was a good time to cry havoc and let slips the dogs of war. The Dimber Damber managed to make it to a place of safety and he was trying to get things back online while the Governor ushered the citizens into the ship that had brought them there. (Just because it couldn’t fly didn’t mean it couldn’t keep things out!

The Dimber Damber did succeed in turning the fences back on and the monsters were being fought off but not without a lot of heavy collateral damage! The Dimber Damber only partially managed to get the megafauna under control thanks to a computer chip after the Governor destroyed the fences. Roran Masters (the businessman mentioned earlier) got into the lone escape pod, which was shot down. The Judge Advocate and Governor were killed by megafauna that had infiltrated the ship. The few characters that hadn’t already perished at that point faced grim futures.

This system has something I enjoy very much, which is collaboratively establishing the setting. All the planets and colonies are neat and have some interesting seeds for potential plots. Character creation is a pretty simple process. I like having another player choose the oath for your characters and how characters are handled in general. It was nice being able to play someone on both sides of the equation and to have the opportunity to help flesh out the other characters.

The way scenes are set was a new experience for me. I think it has a lot of potential; now that I know more about the system and how the game takes shape, I think I’ll be better at it next time. It seems that the questions used to set the scenes shouldn’t have easy or obvious answers. I feel like we tried to avoid that for the most part.

This game was rather action-y. In future games I’d love to see more of the social stuff. Only a few oaths were challenged and no one was really attempting to drive any characters there. I would have loved to see more dramatic tension between the characters!

I am not sure how I feel about conflict resolution after only one time playing the game, I’d have to play at least once more to get a better feel for it. There were some minor disagreements over elements of the fiction so it wasn't the most cohesive night around the table. Not sure how effectively they were resolved but like I said, they were minor in my opinion. It was a pretty fun experience. I look forward to playing the game again and exploring some other colony on some other planet.

Thanks to Martin for facilitating and to Andrew and Kellan for their energy and contributions. (And thanks to Kevin and Lisa for being an engaged audience while they observed.)

- Dani