players: Nick, Richard, Ben

Downfall's a tragedy. The hero's going to fail and the society is going to collapse under the weight of its own flaw. But as we demonstrated last Thursday, that doesn't mean the game has to be a slow-ride on the tear-train. You can have lots of action and excitement.

Our haven: Sunderplate, one of several fortified city-states, constantly at war with its neighbors. With battle mechs. On a lava planet.

Yes we had mech-warfare on lava fields. Missiles and rail guns and all the bang-bangs. It was the best.

Our hero, Neon, wasn't even qualified to be a pilot yet, but after a disastrous showing on one her simulator tests (because she spent the night before sneaking out to roll around with her secret lover), her senpai / Fallen, Xen, took matters into his own hands and snuck her into his unit to cover for an injured pilot. Because (Xen thought) Neon needed real world experience to realize her full potential… and because, dammit, there was no way he was going to not bring every mech he could to crush those Farspike bastards.

Oh yes, our flaw was nationalism. So much nationalism and so much mech combat.

Many wonderful bits:

- Neon freaking out and sabotaging the mission rather than sneak a bomb into Farspike and kill a mess of civilians. Nick, you're a traitor to Sunderplate and you know it.

- Lancer 3. Everything about Lancer 3. The unit Neon was snuck into had two members other than her who we never described except by their call signs (Lancer 1 and Lancer 3 -- she was Lancer 2). Oh the joy of a simple straightman character. "Take that ya Farspike bastages!"

- Neon dying her buzz cut orange as a secret love letter to her forbidden beau. It was a very structured society and everyone wore outfits color-coded to their branch, so her secret sweetie in Engineering wore orange coveralls.

- At one point, Richard wanted full AI mechs and we were like naw, that would mean the people don't have to fight, which kills the tension. So Richard gracefully conceded but then, boom, the next Corruption he brings in that when pilots are killed we have started harvesting their brains and plugging them straight into their mechs so they can keep fighting for the glory of Sunderplate. Zombie shock mech warriors. Oh hell yeah!

We had some great "Ha ha, take that Hero!" moments, followed immediately by "Oh crap, we're rotating and I'm playing the Hero now. Dammit!"

Lancer 3! We will never forget.