Something about Space Pirates

In Memoirs of a Mustang: Grade 14, I've mentioned WARP, a club for tabletop role-playing. I tried signing up for games last semester, but they didn't work out for separate reasons. But now, this semester, I'm a part of a real tabletop campaign.

The game system we're using is Eclipse Phase. It's equivalent to Dungeons and Dragons: it provides you with general rules and a fictional universe, and you make your own adventure out of it. This specific fictional universe is a future where Earth has been ravaged by a phenomenon known as the Fall, and humanity has settled across the solar system.

Eclipse Phase's main unique trait is it's Morph system. Basically, all of our characters have scientifically modified bodies, and can switch into a new body if our old one dies. Our specific campaign is about Space Pirates. Specifically, we're the pirates.

And as if this shit couldn't get any more obscure, guess how I'm numbering the entries?

Entry Hydrogen: Character Creation
This is something that everyone else did already. I'm the newest to tabletop, so they helped me through the process.

My name is Unity Dasher. I have a Drifter background (my family and friends from my childhood were essentially space nomads). My faction are Argonauts (we promote technological advancement and equality for all). I have a Ghost Morph, suited for combat through increases mainly in coordination, but also in reflexes and strength. Personally, I want a character with four arms, and the ability to produce all sorts of chemicals: poisons, dugs, medicine, adhesives, you name it. The GM suggested the Ghost Morph for the sake of my specific character.

Unity Dasher's main ambition is exploration; traversing the solar system and meeting all sorts of people and, hopefully, aliens. He is well-educated in Biochemistry, Biology, and various languages. He is well situated for unarmed combat, research, freerunning, climbing and fray. And he has an extra pair of cybernetic arms. Sweet.

This is so cool. I cannot wait for next Friday.

Entry Helium: YAAARGH!!! No, Stop
One guy was missing (again) tonight due to food poisoning. That sucks. For now, there's just me, Jonathon and Brent.

We explored our character backstories. I decided that my character pissed off a powerful criminal organization on Venus with a sort of prank that engulfed their territory in forestry. The leader, Vincent Decent, downloaded his mind into a body cloned from Unity Dasher's. Left for dead, Unity was "rescued" by pirates and "recruited" into their ranks, along with two other people (the two others playing the campaign with me).

We participated in our first raid on a Jovian cargo ship. This was our introduction to combat. We roll to land hits and then to find out how hard we hit. Brent (who has the most tabletop experience out of the three of us) took care of most combat. I relegated myself to the "medic" role, having picked up a mystery chemical from the pirate ship (I myself knew that it just enhanced my Coordination) and arming myself with all sorts of medical and biochemical knowledge. I consumed one of three doses of the mystery liquid and went crazy for a little bit.

Later on we were facing a bunch of guards (and a mech, but Brent took care of it [Brent is a badass]). When sneaking up behind the soldiers, I tried to do something cool with my character, who has high stats in Climbing and four arms. I jumped off the wall and hung from the ceiling, planning to incapacitate the soldiers from above. Except my die rolls failed, miserably. My character made loud clangs as he jumped off the wall, and didn't even make it to the ceiling. He just crashed onto the floor. When he tried to dodge the incoming bullets, I failed miserable again with my rolls. I ended up facing the full brunt of a swarm of bullets.

Here's where things got weird. I technically died, but the Game Master offered me a chance to redeem myself. If I gave up my one Moxie point (basically a token to perform badass stunts) and permanently (usually they're spent only temporarily), I could negate the damage. But I had to give myself a random derangement: a mental disorder. I rolled, and got schizophrenia. My character is now crazy. But, I still have four arms. All is good.

So we fought all of our enemies and seized control of the ship. Over the course of the mission, we found two key things. One, biological specimens infected with the Exsurgent Virus (which was devised by resident Eldritch Abominations, btw) that I identified with my character's extensive knowledge of astrobiology. Two, a Fenrir morph, which is incredibly powerful but also extremely dangerous. Our pirate captain isn't very rational, so he brought it on board anyway. We all agree that these seem to be the keys to the GM's main plot.

I greatly enjoyed tonight. I died, but I got a second chance and my character's story arc experienced a huge twist on the first chapter. Not even Brent or Jon got that kind of depth to their characters yet.

yo this is cool

Entry Lithium: I've Got a Job for You
There was actually a session in between this and Entry Helium. I wasn't there due to Reading Week.

Anyway, during the session I was gone, the pirates aboard the Black Alexander "sold" two of their four tubes of Exsurgent Virus to the company ZEM. The location was a station amidst the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The pirates then killed their customers and tried to take the tubes back. Unfortunately, the tubes got thrown into an incinerator shaft. Also from last session, we kidnapped a new "recruit". His name is Bob. Bob doesn't do much.

This session, it was our characters' job to get the tubes back. Jon and Brent's characters stayed behind. Brent's character (Hawkspur, a woman) is kind of evil; I mean, Jon's character (John) and I kill when stuck in a battle, Hawkspur just does whatever. It kind of pisses off my character that she tries to take charge.

Unity Dasher went ahead to take care of the grunts that were sent out. And, of course, it all went wrong. My character encountered a mutant of the Exsurgent Virus. The "Thing" lumbered towards us, damaging me slightly but not doing too much harm. Oh, except there was a bit of drama where it was feared I was infected with a mental illness by a race of god-like aliens. Didn't die, though.

Later, we encountered a set of doors covered in purplish organic mass. My character successfully identified it as product of the Exsurgent Virus. We blew up another Thing via grenades that I had kept from my last session. Eventually, though, we had to go back; the crew at the ship were encountering hordes of Exsurgent zombies.

We escaped, our mission failed, and our captain (also called Black Alexander) apparently injured. Given that any contact with the Exsurgent Virus can lead to an epidemic, that wasn't a good sign.

I went to talk to John (a synthetic morph; a robot) to get aquainted with my co-workers. We chatted a bit. I told him about my desire to just get the hell off of the Black Alexander, and he told me a little about himself, about how he felt dead at times and that this was just like an afterlife for him. Also, he has a pet roach the size of a child. Jon the player has established that his character has been dead for 10 years.

I went to the Doctor aboard the ship to see if I could get a job. He agreed, but not without acting incredibly kooky. He muttered something about me being number 32. Apparently number 20 is on one of Jupiter's moons, Titan. Apparently this is a big plot point.

-----------------------------

A night passed. I went to the gym to train (not that it helps my game-stats, I just figured Unity would do that). At the cafeteria, I noticed Hawkspur singing. I was intrigued, but knowing her, I kept my distance (I myself know a lot more than Unity, that Hawkspur wants a promotion, and is actually a part of another organization called Firewall).

As the Doctor's Assistant, I was sent to the Captain's cabin to check up on him. I met up with Hawkspur along the way. In the cabin, the Captain was limping around, but he didn't appear freshly wounded. We noticed scratched markings on the walls. Using my knowledge of Xenolinguistics, I concluded that there was indeed a pattern in the markings).

Back with the Doctor, I grilled him for information regarded the higher-up pirates. Apparently most of the top guys have been around since the beginning. But what is "the beginning"? Five years? 10? 12? The Doctor kept changing his answer. He's just crazy.

And, to end the session on a cliffhanger, the first mate has been accused of mutiny and killed off.

This session had a lot more plot than the last one I was at, which I really liked. I get to act my character out in significant ways, and I'm actually affecting the story somewhat.