Our Action Tales system sci-fi game continued last night with two additional characters meeting up with the crew: Ariana (Mercurian technician) and Rusty Tam (an Earther Smuggler).
The party had to get back to their contacts room on the spaceliner Solar Queen to achieve the encrypted datachip to pay the pirates who had "salvaged" the Ares Corp yacht. The problem was, Ares thugs had the monorail station staked out, waiting for them.
The crew didn't have many distance weapons, so when the Ares guys pulled electrolaser stunners, all they could do was dodge through the transit station kiosks, making a break for the train. It doesn't go smoothly. There's a lot of tripping and running into each other.
Eventually, though they get on the train and throw out the one thug that managed to get on with them. It's a short trip to the space port where the Solar Queen is in Bay 04. They cross the ramp to the ship, but there's a guard waiting there who demands ID.
Rhyn and Rusty stun him, and the group proceeds inside.
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From the game running perspective, this adventure shows the Action Tales System tends to end up with a lot of "yes, but..." That's not a bad thing, but care has to taken in choosing what the complications are lest things start to seem comedic, even slapstick. The same sort of thing tends to occur with the Grok?! system too. It's not really a problem for either of my groups, but I could see it bugging some people or perhaps working against certain settings.
3 comments:
Grok?! feels like it's okay to have somewhat slapstick (or ironically painful) results as the characters bumble their way through things. With Action Tales the vibe is usually more serious and that can feel out of place.
Out of curiosity, is "Solar Queen" an homage to Andre Norton's book of teh same name?
It is indeed!
I can see the "Yes, but..." causing the GM to have make sure they are on their toes, and like you said you have to be careful to avoid too comedic of a tone. I'm still hoping to give the system (Star Scoundrels) a spin.
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