It's a mystery to me; and the game commences
For the usual fee... plus expenses.
- Dire Straits, Private Investigations
Deep Space, Late February '01: Contact in Space
Leaving Thalweg, the Egregore's sensors picked up a suspiciously heavily armed trader; the transponder showed Gaea Prime registry. Makavan decided it was probably a pirate, but if it didn't bother him, he certainly wasn't going to pick a fight with it. They passed each other in silence, a small fish and a shark which for some reason wasn't hungry that day.
Just as well; even with the benefit of ATPs, it took Makavan and the AI six hours to plot the course through hyperspace to New Hope, and trying to do that under fire would have been hopeless. Makavan would've rage-quit had that been an option.
Approaching New Hope, another trader responded to his hails with pleasantries and a data packet of news from its independent homeworld; Makavan sent what he had picked up on Thalweg, which cost him nothing but a few Watts of energy and might help his reputation.
He also checked the spaceport bounty board, mostly in case he was on it. He wasn't.
New Hope, Late February '01: Chillin'
Safe from extradition, if not bludgeoning, Makavan disposed of his cargo and made his way back to the Snakebite Inn. He was relatively flush this month, thanks to Ribeiro's charter, but who knew how long that would last? If his balance kept increasing, maybe he would find a better class of diner. However, there was something to be said for being within running distance of the ship.
Inside, four of the tables were already occupied; the place was unusually busy. He hadn't chosen the Snakebite Inn as his regular haunt for its food or drink, but because it seemed to be an informal clearing-house for clients with questionable judgement hiring borderline legal people such as himself to do unusual things. Checking in with Billy the Snake and buying the necessary drink to cover his activities, Makavan learned from Billy who was offering work, then worked the room until he found something suitable.
A couple of apparently unrelated ordinary working Joes wanted help defending their shops and each offered 4 IRD. Makavan was sure he could do better, and anyway his skill set was not focused on breaking things and hurting people. That was something Guzman would be better at. At least these potential patrons were both human.
Two different private eyes wanted help finding the same criminal bail-jumper and each offered 5 IRD. One razor, one grath; Makavan could see why they might need someone who would blend in to a largely basic population. The razor looked a lot more dangerous, and by that token the more useful ally. Makavan decided that was the one to hire on with.
"Okay," he said. "I'm in. Who are we looking for?" The razor slid a holocube depicting a shifty-looking hishen across the table.
"This one," she said. "I would start in the spaceport, but he may be in Little Hisha."
Makavan started to feel uneasy. A razor was perfectly capable of doing this job, and more likely to interact successfully with a hishen. Something was off here; but it was too late to back out now.
Status at End February '01
- IRD/DRD: +7 (Hauling Cargo with no patron - miscalculated that last time), -3 (ship upkeep), -2 (fled an encounter in episode 3). Total, +2 IRD. I roll 5, 6 which would have given another increase in Rep; so Simon's Wealth increases to d10 (then drops to d8 as he goes shopping).
- 5150 Stats: Rep: 5. The game can't function without a Rep, and it usually begins at 5, so we'll assume Simon's Rep is 5 for the moment. Current IRD: 0. Lifetime IRD: 11; there's a long way to go yet, we're aiming for 300.
- SWADE Stats: Bennies: Refresh to 3 at session end. Wounds: None. Advances: None.
GM Notes
I see that in episode 3's fight I forgot to give the pursuing Zhuh-Zhuh the benefit of light body armour; still, one of my rules is "no do-overs", and that works to my PC's advantage as often as not. I figure it all evens out in the end. However, if everyone's wearing body armour, a 9mm auto pistol doesn't cut it, so Simon makes a Wealth roll to buy a laser pistol; he rolls a Success, and since it costs more than $10 x Wealth die type, he gets it but his Wealth drops one die type to d8.
This time around, I also realised that my Star can Haul Cargo just by saying he's doing that, which makes a big difference to being able to maintain Rep. I've been playing 5150 wrong in that regard since 2015. Oh well.
The astrogation roll (SFC) was a real mess; it took six tries to get a good enough result, but so long as you're not under time pressure and don't roll a critical failure, you can just keep trying until it works. However, it isn't fast, furious or fun, and the 5150 setting doesn't really need it as interstellar travel uses portals called Automated Transfer Points, so when we get to the end of the three month trial run, I may drop it.
Hauling Cargo back to New Hope means two PEFs encountered en route; I think the "one PEF per Ring" rule for Hauling supersedes the "1/2 d6 PEFs" in Contact in Space. We get a Gaea Prime Pirate (who may attack) in Ring 4, and an independent Basic Trader (who ignores us) in Ring 3. No Limits p. 37 says Pirates attack Traders, but it also says refer to p. 29 to see what happens, so let's try that... Each side rolls 1d6 + number of figures (in this case, ships); Simon gets a 6, the Pirate gets a 5; since neither side scores at least twice as much as the other, there is no fight. I forgot to check that in episode 2, but as well as playing to find out, we play to learn.
Turning to the Job Offers (5150NLMV p. 44) I roll Rep - 1d6 = 4 for the number of job offers; the implication is that I can only take one, but I decide to game the system a little and pay all 4 of the PEFs I get while Chillin' to check out all of them, and you see the outcomes above. (Why? PEFs might be immediately dangerous, but Job Offers are only dangerous next month and then only if you take them.) Thus it is that Simon agrees to Find a Rep 3 Hishen for a Rep 5 Razor.
I'll have to figure out what IRD is an abbreviation for in-game. It would be useful if the player and the character used the same term.
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