Blake's ship

If you haven't read the latest Firefly RPG Core rulebook preview on the MWP site you really should.

It's here: http://www.margaretweis.com/index.php/blog/entry/firefly-find-a-ship-preview
Go on - go and read it and come back, I'll wait.







Done?

Good isn't it? Anyhow the fact that it mentions a Salvage vessel got me thinking and it struck me that I never published on the blog the stats for Blake, the ne'er do well salvage captain that the crew met and fought in their first excursion into the Black, nor had I posted his ship; the "Gum San" (Gold Mountain). So lets rectify that (at least in part) now.

The Gum San is a Scorpio Class salvage vessel, a fan created ship detailed in the "Cortex Shipyards" fan-written supplement for the original Serenity rpg.  You can find copies of it floating about on the web if you look and Blake and his crew were creations of mine for that game that I never got around to using.

The ship is a civilian commercial vessel so other that the large claw like frames that extend from the bow, bristling with cutting gear and grapples to hold potential salvage. The class has no weaponry but Blake is nothing if not creative.  He has acquired two "Hull Crawlers" (also creations from the Cortex Shipyards); one person, magnetic tracked vacuum capable tanks, designed to cling to the hulls of stations or ships.  When there's trouble these two roll out of the ship's cargo bay and down the extended "arms", blazing away as necessary with missiles and their small scale cannon. When not needed they are hidden amongst the scrap and parts stored in the holds.

However the ship is old, cantankerous and not the best maintained vessel in space, and it's starting to show.

Gum San (Gold Mountain)
ENGINES d6 HULL d6 SYSTEMS d8

SCORPIO CLASS SALVAGE VESSEL d8
Gain 1 Plot Point when you roll a d4 instead of a d8.

BEEN AROUND THE 'VERSE d8
Gain 1 Plot Point when you roll a d4 instead of a d8.
Don't make 'em like that: Step back the difficulty die when Fixing. Step up any Complications that result.

SMUGGLERS DELIGHT d8
Gain 1 Plot Point when you roll a d4 instead of a d8.
Covert: When making a Sneak roll with the ship the pilot may spend 1 Plot Point to reroll.

SIGNATURE ASSETS:
Salvage Cutting Gear d6
Hull Crawlers d8

Episode (session) #7 - May contain Shooting Fish (Echoes of War) spoilers

(Sorry updates have been a bit....absent of late - will try to do better (consider wrist slapped)...there are two sessions to catch up on and a number of interesting rules discussions we had in game, NPCs to write up.....better get on with it hadn't I?)

Well our crew had won the race, and the day perhaps?

They helped the Cavendish crew out of the water and then Floris went to collect the prize (with the crew backing him up) - but no one expected the Mayor to give up easy.

The local band struck up a tune as they climbed the podium and the crew were taken a little by surprise when the Mayor smiled and presented them with their chest full of winnings. But his true colours were shown as he pulled Floris close and hissed "Spend it gorram quick..."

Our heroic crew hightailed it back to the Orphanage and presented the Shepherd with the winnings; the children were all over the crew, dying to learn of their daring deeds and heroism. The crew were a bit worried about resting on their laurels though and got the paperwork they needed from the shepherd and went straight back into town to get the debt paid and the orphanage signed over to Rust.

They found the Mayor "holding court" and drinking himself into a stupor in the tavern.  He and Floris traded words but what could he do in front of much of the town? The money changed hands, deeds were signed and more verbal threats levelled (giving Floris a Complication) but no blood was shed. The crew returned to the orphanage and set up a series of watches...they still didn't trust the Mayor...

Come morning some of the children were the first to spot the dust of the Mayor's Air Cav and a posse of riders heading up the hill from the town. The crew dove into action - Floris went to confront the mayor face to face, Judah took up a sniper position in the orphanage while Bean, Dr Norris, Leo and Shepherd Rust herded the children into the relative safety of the Bei Xiang.

Floris tried to talk the mayor down but "negotiations" soon became hostile.

Now it's been a while since we played this session and LOTS happened in the battle so things get hazy from this point (they ain't too clear before it either) but the main things were:

• Floris got stuck in fightin' hand to hand with the Purple Gang and eventually Lake himself
• Judah was swiftly (and unfortunately) taken out when the Purple Gang "up'd the stakes" on his roll to taken some of them out.
• Bean realised some of the children were still playing out in the grounds and had been cut off from the ship by the Purple Gang horsemen. She headed back to rescue them and brought them back to the ship
• Leo used a bunch of devices and mechanical wonders that he controlled from his workshop in the ship (e.g. Drones and smoke bombs - all Assets created on the fly) to take out a bunch of the Purple Gang
• Dr Norris had Shepherd Rust call in the local Alliance Feds, advising them that the children were under attack
• Floris whupped the enraged and bitter mayor bringing him to his knees as the authorities arrived. Lake was bound under law and taken away, cursing Rust, Floris and the crew as he went. 

The Orphanage was saved, the crew made a small profit from the remainder of the race winnings (half of which Floris convinced the crew to give Shepherd Rust for the children and the running of the Orphanage) and the crew had found a new ally and port of call in Rust. All in all not a bad few days work.

Bean writes....

"I remember some things very clearly, but large swathes are missing. If I look back, it feels like nothing is there, like something should be. It's like walking down a familiar staircase in the dark, where you know each step, which ones creak, where to swing silently round the smooth metal bannister, only to find one missing, your feet straying into empty space where a step should be. I can see that staircase now, can smell it, damp sandstone and great wooden slabs of stairs, worn down, spiralling down, the bannister metal but now smooth from all the hands. I know halfway up was a window without glass in it, a tiny crippled rowan tree growing in a crack in the sill where enough damp blew in. I know the doors off the stairs looked old outside, great wooden things, but really steel once they were open, with the smell of cloves and something sharp under it, weirdly discordant when mingling with the smell of the stairs.

 

I said I remembered this clearly. I remember the sound of reed slippers on the steps, and upper levels with rooms, rooms that had windows. I remember a regular, hollow sound like tubes of wood knocking, accompanied by the flow of water. I know there were stepping stones and a bridge and a platform, and long hours of practice. 

I don't know what I would have practiced.  

I said I remembered. 

But I've never been there."

The Mysterious Mr Cole

When the crew boarded the wreck of the doomed Helse Bergen they found only one survivor: the enigmatic and, they soon discovered, obviously very lethal Eli Cole.  Or at least that's what he told them he was called...

We may soon find out a bit more about the cargo and fate of the Helse Bergen and exactly what part Mr Cole had to play in it all...

"Eli Cole"

Attributes
MENTAL d8 PHYSICAL d8 SOCIAL d8

Skills (all others at d4)
Fight (Swords) d10
Focus d6
Influence (Intimidate) d8
Know (Alliance Protocols) d8
Move d6
Notice d6
Shoot d6
Sneak d8
Trick (Undercover) d8

Distinctions:
EX-ALLIANCE AGENT d8
Gain 1 Plot Point when you roll a d4 instead of a d8.

MYSTERIOUS PAST d8
Gain 1 Plot Point when you roll a d4 instead of a d8.
Cortex Spectre: Whenever anyone uses an information based Asset against you, spend 1 PP to turn it into a No Data Found Complication of the same die rating.
Ghosts of Yesterday: Create a d8 Complication relating to your history to step up your Fight, Know, or Sneak for a scene. This Complication cannot be stepped back by spending PPs to activate Opportunities.

WU DANG STYLE d8
Gain 1 Plot Point when you roll a d4 instead of a d8.

Signature Assets:
Jian (Sword) d8