Luna Blues

 

Last night, taking a break from 5e Azurth, we played a gaming using Peril Planet's Action Tales system (kitbashing rules from Star Scoundrels, Neon City Overdrive, and Terminal City) in the Buck Rogers-inspired setting I discussed last week. 

The year is 2979 and the PCs are the (former) crew of a corporate hauler doing a Luna-Ceres run. Finding themselves out of a job when their employer was bought out by Ares Corporation (the Martian baddies), they find themselves sitting in the Tycho City dive called the Free Fall Bar and Grill, listening to bad karaoke and spending their last paycheck. The characters are:

• Hesperos (Tug): Pilot from the Venusian Cloud cities.
• Ryne Ganult (Andrea): Engineer from the Belt.
• Zarek (Bob): Martian ex-soldier with a cybernetic arm.

The group is approached by a woman who gives her name as Chandra Roberts. She's a lawyer who needs a crew to fly a salvaged ship back to Earth. She's offering 1000 Martian Yuan for a one day job. It's good money, so the group says yes, but almost immediately things get complicated.

A guy and some goons come in. The guy claims to be a Lunar cop and places Chandra under arrest. Something smells fun, though, because why aren't these goons in uniform? And why doesn't the leader's uniform have identification? When the group balks, one goon draws a gun.

When Hesperos quick draws his pistol, a fight breaks out. In short order, the thugs are on the ground courtesy of the stunners Zarek and Ganult have, but the real cops are likely on their way.

They flee the bar and as soon as they get a moment, Roberts reveals that she works for ORE, the Organization for the Renewal of Earth, and the ship in question is a stolen yacht that once belonged to Ares Corp chairman, Alexei Loehr-Zau, and seems to contain a drive with sensitive Ares Corp data.

Roberts wants the crew to help her buy by the data (and the ship) from pirates.

TO BE CONTINUED