Halfway Station: Fringe Space: Makavan 000

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
- T.S. Eliot, The Naming of Cats

Why not a Session Zero for solo campaigns too? It has a slightly different focus, but it's still helpful to clarify how I intend to run the game.

Setting Expectations for the Campaign

Genre and Tone: SF noir. My games generally end up there anyway, I may as well lean into it.

Rules and Setting: A Savage Worlds implementation of 5150 No Limits Maiden Voyage; SWADE is my go-to RPG, but it lacks a number of elements one needs for a solo campaign, such as randomly-generated encounters, missions, and NPCs; these I will borrow from 5150 No Limits Maiden Voyage. I will also pick and choose elements from the SWADE SF Companion (rules) and 5150 Fringe Space (setting), but I must be careful here; the keys to a successful solo game are first, keep the complexity level low to avoid burnout, and second, if you're mashing up multiple products, minimise overlap between them, as the overlap generates more complexity.

Safety Tools: I'm not a huge fan of these in general, but since I do prefer tales of romance and drama to those of sex and violence, movie ratings are a handy shorthand; I'm aiming somewhere around PG-13.

Objectives: Establish whether "5150 for Savage Worlds" works well enough for long-term solo and group campaigns, whether I should adopt more of the SWADE SFC, and whether it's worth switching from Roll20 to Fantasy Grounds. And, of course, have fun playing; it's easy to overlook that and get caught up in rules mods.

Off-Ramp: Minor issues - drop SWADE and revert to 5150. Major issues - shift the campaign into Guest Games, pretend it never happened, walk away whistling nonchalantly. To be reviewed after 12 posts.

Character Generation

I like to give characters personalities which match the meanings of their names, so choosing a name used to take a long time; but now, I get a short list from Space Corsair's Traveller name generator and pick one; this tells me my new PC is called Simon Makavan.

According to the internet, which is good enough for this purpose, "Simon" might be from the Hebrew and mean listening or hearing, or from the Greek and mean flat-nosed. "Makavan" is from Tamil and means one who has children or sacrificer. Gujrati has a similar-sounding name (Macwan) which is sometimes said to mean crowned one or one with a diadem. Swirling those around in a glass of single malt until they dissolve, they suggest Simon's Edges might include Alertness or Aristocrat, while his Hindrances might include Code of Honour, Loyal, Selfless (from the SFC) or Ugly (which I discount because he can't afford the Persuasion penalty). I also want Simon to have a small spaceship, which means taking the Captain Edge from the SFC; its prerequisites are Common Bond (minimum Smarts d6) and Piloting d8. By now I have the concept of an exiled nobleman in mind, and take Enemy (Minor) as the missing Hindrance - the rivals who plotted his downfall. Shamed or Vengeful would also have worked.

Turning to skills, 5150NLMV explicitly calls out pilot, mechanic, "culinary" and labourer as crew positions; let's call those Piloting, Repair, Common Knowledge, and Athletics, respectively. SWADE adds Electronics to operate sensors and missiles, and Shooting to operate lasers. The SFC adds Science for navigation. Experience playing 5150 makes me think Fighting, Persuasion, Piloting and Shooting will be critical, so I emphasise those at the expense of other skills.

I don't like dropping attributes below d6, but with three Edges I need to reduce something so he can have Agility d8; so Strength falls to d4. I also don't like paying the points to increase skills above the linked attributes, so his skills will be mostly d4 or d6, but I can afford Piloting and Shooting at d8; the d8 in Agility is to make those two cheaper to buy.

Going forward, Ace is essential to allow him to soak vehicle Wounds and ignore a few penalties, Alertness would reflect his superior hearing, and we ought to do something about his Strength. That'll do for Novice Rank, then we'll reassess. Probably Luck and Great Luck to gain more Bennies, followed by Spirit d8 and Common Bond so he can share them with allies. Never enough points, are there?

To summarise:

Simon Makavan

Ancestry: Human (Adaptable).
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigour d6, Wealth d6.
Skills: Athletics d4, Common Knowledge d4, Electronics d4, Fighting d6, Notice d4, Persuasion d6, Piloting d8, Repair d4, Science d4, Shooting d8, Stealth d4.
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 9 (4*).
Hindrances: Code of Honour, Enemy (Minor - rival House), Loyal.
Edges: Aristocrat, Captain, Command.
Gear: Trader starship Egregore; Glock (2d6 AP1 $200 3 lb); dagger (Str+d4 $25 1 lb); commlink ($50); light civilian body armour (Toughness +4* $200 4 lb). $25.