Another Bug Hunt session 1 reflections
Dramatis personae:
Ben Morris - Marine
“Big” Walter Osman - Teamster
Axis Lombardy - Android
El Balmoral - Contractor (Surgeon)
Players entered the Greta Base by the garage. They got the attention of Abara and he immediately transformed. Ben took damage from a blast when he shot his grenades destroying his AP. They found the guy in the APC and Big Walt stole his grenade before yeeting it. He took damage due to the blast, destroying his AP. Walt turned on the generator and I forgot about the music until later, oops.
They go around the base in the APC and do a not-so-thorough sweep of the base. As soon as they find Hinton's locator they are set on finding him. I figured they'd die on the Mothership and I did not prepare for this at all. I call for a break and quickly read the Mothership scenario of Another Bug Hunt.
They go thru the Mothership via the cracked carapace. Big Walt waits outside, shirtless, chain smoking cigarettes with the rope made from his shirt and El’s labcoat. I should have charged the crew time for removing the hazard suit, since I want to emphasize the bulkiness of equipment. I also should have done encounter rolls periodically for Big Walt while the rest of the crew were in the belly of the beast.
It goes without issue, El touches one whisker in that tunnel which reveals a secret cavity and powerful weapon. I might have been too obvious about it's function and how to remove it but also it's a cool doohickey and that = fun. Ben Morris digs the crab killer out of the floor. He grows more powerful by the nanosecond!
When they reach the court of the carcinid nobles, they see Hinton and leave immediately as the situation dawns on them that he is behind the situation at Samsa VI. It goes without issue and they leave to Heron Terraforming Station. They've given up on Hinton's logic core and have decided to find Edem or at least restore communications and call for extract. They don't give a shit about Kaplan and assume he had been KIAd at Greta Base.
So they make their way to the Station, where Valdez meets them outside. I should have had the carcs bug them inside the APC but there's a procedure for meeting carcs only after it floods and I didn't know how to get the Valdez scene in the module to play correctly if they're in an APC.
I really regret skipping this! A carc could have torn the door off the APC (we've seen they're pretty damned powerful) and they could have been saved at the last second. The session was growing long and I made a poor decision in my fatigue. I am still developing an endurance for running games. The players were none the wiser but it would have been great tonally and it's in the module for a reason. Instead of having them arrive without issue or be saved by Valdez, I picked a middle ground which proved lacking. Oh, well!
They met the remaining colonists and each leader pitched their plan to the party. Because it was the end of the session I was very straight to business here. I want to try and present a moment for the players when the game resumes where the crew can interact with more of the survivors, instead of just the faction leaders.
Valdez and Ben got in a pissing contest and things were tense there. They were favourable toward Edem and saw Brookman as a practical afterthought.
I will prep a little for session 2 for the NPCs in particular. I plan on also studying the rules for certain specific things that came up and were unclear or might come up in the following sessions.
The player for Axis Lombardy expressed some tension between survival and playing his character. I wonder how I can lean in toward the player and provide those opportunities. I think I will remind them of Survive/Solve/Save and tell them to think hard about what's most important for your character. Ben Morris’ player is very much in charge of a situation (decisive) and has the most experience, having survived several horrors in past games. The other two had never played MoSh.
There was also some issues taken with my timekeeping but I think I did “okay”. The criticism came from a longtime GM and I don't think it stood out to the other players but it's still something to improve upon.
I consider this my first “real” session, with everything else prior to it being casual one-shots set up for my benefit to learn the system and my role as Warden. I'd say it was a successful venture.
I am excited to run again in two weeks time! I wonder how things will shake out :3c