Post Campaign Game Notes.

Here are the charts and a map from my campaign if anybody else wants to run their own campaign.  All the other rules came from After The Horsemen, 5150:NB and 5150 Infestation.

The Final Episode.

Table setup.

After Sam's success defending against the Hishen slavers, he tries to capture the Hishen shuttle. The board was set up with the shuttle in the center and Sam entering from section 7(Lower Left Corner). I followed the rules for the rescue scenario from Infestation that could be applied. Two Hishen crew members were on the ramp outside the shuttle. The Razor and the four remaining Hishen crew members were inside. All the Hishen were Rep 3 armed with pistols and the Razor was Rep 5. For possible captives inside the shuttle I used the list of inmates that I started the campaign with on the belief that they would likely be the ones captured in the area by slavers.

1 Hishen down, 1 to go.

Sam got to move first in both the in sight test and activation. Since the ramp closes after three activations time is of the essence. Sam fast moves closer to the Hishen and fires. His first shot knocks one Hishen out of the fight and he misses the second shot. The remaining Hishen returns fire and misses. After a few more missed shots from both parties Sam kills the remaining Hishen. Sam then climbs the entrance ramp and pauses on the threshold before entering. A Razor and four Hishens still remain to be dealt with. (The cinematic pause for dramatic effect was actually caused by a missed activation roll.)

Sam enters the shuttle.

Sam enters the empty cabin and starts searching the cells for possible help before any crew arrive. The first cell he checks is empty. Suddenly a Hishen enters the cabin from the hall to the cockpit, Sam fires and the Hishen falls to the floor obviously dead. A second Hishen crew member bursts in to the cabin, Sam misses his shot and luckily so does his foe. Sam makes the next shot count and the Hishen is out of the fight. Sam makes quick work of the remaining two Hishen to enter the cabin.

Dead Hishens litter the floor.

The next cell he checks is also empty. As he is emerging from the cell the Razor enters the cabin stepping over the pile of dead Hishen. Sam recovers from the mental blast of the Razor, again making good use of star dice. He fires at the Razor. She uses bullet time to dodge the bullet but ducks back into the hall to regroup. She enters the cabin and fires a mental blast at Sam. He fires at the Razor who uses bullet time to dodge the bullet. The fight continues for a while longer until the Razor ducks back into the hall to regroup.

The Razor enters the cabin.

Sam quickly checks another cell, releases Al(Rep 4) and hands him a pistol. Both parties are agreed that fighting the Razor is the first priority. When the Razor enters the cabin both Sam and Al fire immediately causing the Razor to duck back into the hall without sending out a mental blast. The Razor tries again and the shots from Sam and Al cause her to duck back into the hall for a breather. This gives Sam time to check another cell. Unfortunately it is empty so no more help is available.

Al joins the fight.

The Razor steps into the cabin and misses with her mental blast. Sam misses his shot and Al would have hit if not for that bullet time talent the Razor has. The Razor gathers her wits and sends another mental blast out. Sam survives the blast but Al is not so lucky and is out of the fight. Sam and the Razor go back and forth for what seems like an eternity, shot in cinematic slow motion with extensive editorial tricks. Finally the Razor zigs when she should have zagged and is hit and stunned. Sam quickly crosses the cabin and dispatches the Razor.

Al is out of the fight.

Sam dispatches the Razor.

Sam then checks the remaining cells and releases Sue and Jose. So now there are four members of this temporary group. Since Sam was a smuggler before being sentenced to serve time on this planet flying this Hishen shuttle should be a piece of cake. So the party quickly fires up the engines and heads out of the atmo.

Getting ready to leave the planet.

Those Pesky Hishen Slavers.

Table setup.

I finally rolled a involuntary encounter which turned out to be Hishen slavers. I used the Hishen slaver scenario and rules from Infestation. I started with Sam in section 4 of the table and the Hishen slavers in section 3. The slaver group consisted of 1 Hishen, 1 Razor and 1 Grath. I set up Sam facing away from the slaver group and rolled each activation (1-3) to see if he turned around to see the slavers approaching. Section 9 of the table was occupied by my cat.

Hishen slavers approach Sam.

After several activations Sam finally noticed the slavers approaching. He fires his Bolt Action Rifle at the Razor. Of course the Razor uses the Bullet time attribute to successfully dodge the shot. All three slavers fire back at Sam with a successful hit by the Razor's mental blast and the Hishen stun pistol. Several Star Power dice later Sam's damage is reduced to Carry on. He fires back at the Hishen missing but causing him to run to cover.

A gunfight ensues.

Sam then runs to the concealment of the nearest shrubbery instead of facing off against 3 foes on open ground. The slavers lose sight of Sam and he manages to circle behind them. He takes 2 shots from his pistol at the Razor. Again using Bullet time the Razor dodges the shots. The Razor loses the Received Fire test and retires. Obviously the pay is not good enough to go up against armed opponents who are actively fighting back. The Hishen and Grath move back into cover and try to see where the shots are coming from.

Sam circles through cover.

Sam moves to get a shot at the slavers. Both of Sam's shots miss. The Hishen slaver misses his shot, but the Grath hits. Again Sam has to use Star Power to reduce his damages. He fires his pistol again. He misses the Hishen, but hits the Grath in the head resulting in an Obviously Dead Grath. This was an extremely skilled targeted shot by Sam regardless of what others may say. The Hishen fires back and misses. Sam returns fire and the Hishen is Out of the Fight.

Sam attacks from behind.

Sam recovers the Parak Stun Pistol and a BAP. He is pretty well armed now with 2 Pistols, a Stun Pistol and a Bolt Action Rifle. The next encounter will see if Sam can commandeer the ship the slavers landed in and get off the planet.

Sam manages to take out the ramainder of the party.

A Friendly Chat.

 This was another wandering encounter. The terrain set up was a road running across the last section of the table. The remainder of the board was mostly clear. Three PEFs ended up on the road.
Sam started from the middle of the opposite side heading toward the road.

Sam heads to the road.

Reaching the center of the table PEF 2 was insight and resolved as a Old Male Neutral Pack Wolf (Rep3 Pep1) heading along the road so he was facing away from Sam. Eagerly looking forward to talking to someone Sam decides to Fast move before losing contact with the old man. PEF 1 and 3 resolved to a cases of nerves.

Sam and Hank barter and catch up on the news.

The old man decides to move towards Sam for a chat. Some barter ensues. Sam trades his Medkit for more food and catches up on the news.

Afterwards the two parties head their separate ways. This worked out to be a successful wandering encounter. One PEF was resolved as an NPC. A good roll for how the interaction with neutral NPCs led to a barter session without the need for combat.

The journey continues for both characters.

Closer to Escape.

Table setup - mostly wooded terrain.

Sam is continuing to try to escape from No Hope. This time it is a wandering encounter to try and get more resources and trek closer to the spaceport. The area was heavily wooded with only one clear patch. Leaving at daybreak to get a head start on the day he started exploring.

Sam discovers a settlement.

Almost immediately he encountered a settlement of three vacant buildings and three houses. True to form as a thief, Sam decided to loot the vacant buildings. Checking the first two vacant buildings resulted in finding nothing. The next building was a house.

Sam encounters a Razor ganger.

I generated the NPC as a Neutral Razor Ganger(Rep 5,Fit 4,Pep 3,Sav 5 Pack). I failed the People challenge so the encounter switched to combat. The Razor attacked first with a mental blast. Sam had to use Star Power to reduce the effects of a stun result. A couple of lucky pistol shots and Sam dispatched the Razor.

Sam leaves the settlement.

Sam recovered some food and a bolt action rifle. The next order of business was to get the heck out of dodge. Sam left the area.

The encounter was a success. Some food and another weapon was found.

Venturing Into The Unkown.

After a case of nerves Sam moves on.

This was a wandering encounter with Sam exploring the area and trying to get his bearings. The terrain generated was hilly. LOS was limited and 3 PEFs were in areas 2,3,5.

Sam started moving using the path of least resistance. Why climb hills when you don't have to? The chances of finding anything are slim, but Sam can't go back. Sounds and a glimpse of movement appear off to the left. After investigation nothing was found. A bad case of the nerves was not a good way to start exploring a strange planet.

Sam and Eve meeting for the first time.

Moving out of shade of a hill into an open area a figure appeared. A young female pack wolf standing in the clearing. (Eve Neutral Y Rep2 Fit2 Pep1 Sav0 Pistol Resilient Kidnap Thief) Neither party was inclined to waste time and energy on a pointless fight. After a bit of chat Eve agreed to show Sam the way to the settlement that she is a resident of.

Heading off into the wilds.

Settlement is a generous term for the group of four buildings. Three were vacant and the one home is occupied by Eve. A search of the vacant buildings turned up a pistol that Eve had somehow missed during previous searches. Now Sam has a vacant building to occupy and plan his next moves.

Landed on a Prison Planet, now what?

Starting negotiations and barter.

The pod landed safely, the prisoners left and spread out into two groups and the encounter starts. The supplies in the pod are assumed to be 1 unit of rations and 1 medkit per prisoner. Sam is my character and Jose is the leader of the other group.

Other side activates first.
They move close and spread out intimidatingly to "negotiate".
People challenge Sam(PEP5) vs Jose(PEP4). Success=even distribution of supplies,Failure=melee.
Sam wins the challenge and the equipment is evenly divided amongst everybody.
The groups move on to barter with one barter check per each of my group members vs one member of the other group. The results meant our group ended up with 3 medkits and 4 rations. Deciding that discretion is the better part of valour our group decides to leave the encounter and explore the surrounding area. One of my group members has the mooch attribute so our rations are now down to 3.

After the encounter the keeping it together test is taken. Sam rolls 5d6 with 1 success. Each grunt gets an extra d6 because there aren't enough rations. All roll at least 2 successes. Sam survived the encounter but was deserted by his group. He is now stuck in the wilderness with a ration pack and a medkit. So much for the plan of exploring the area and mounting a raid later if nothing interesting was discovered.

I think I will play through this scenario a few more times with different NPCs to see what happens.

Escape from No Hope.

Now that fall is here I am getting back to playing. I have been thinking of modifying the 5150:NB justice system to extend a campaign. What I have been toying with is instead of a death sentence or a long term in jail the characters get transferred to a prison planet. The campaign would then switch to ATH rules in an Escape From New York type setting.

The setting would be a small deserted planet without much going for it economically. The walls around the town and spaceport keep prisoners out instead of in. Scheduled drops of basic supplies like rations/water/medicine are dropped into the countryside by drones. Ideally these would be equally distributed, but more likely these will be fought over by various gangs or snatched quickly by the most mobile prisoners. A No Go Zone around the walls would be enforced with various automatic weapons, droids, drones, mines and whatever nasty technology can be deployed to keep prisoners from trying to get to the spaceport and escape. A shanty town would have developed around the No Go Zone with various enterprises run by the more powerful, connected or skilled prisoners. The further away from the walls the more likely you would be to run into the more insane, demented and antisocial prisoners. A setting where everyone you run into is almost guaranteed to have no redeeming qualities would lead to interesting encounters with lots of combat almost by default.

The character's goals would be to survive and thrive on the planet or maybe try to escape like in Escape From New York. It still needs to be fleshed out but that is the basic idea so far.

2 groups of prisoners face off after landing.

Here is an update to my scenario so far. Prisoners will be deployed to the planet in Portable Prisoner Units(PPU) 10 person pods that are parachuted to the surface and unlock on touchdown. Each unit contains rations and medical supplies to last one month. The Unit itself can become a living unit. It would be cruel punishment for the New Hope penal system to drop prisoners into a hostile environment to serve their sentences without a chance for survival. The committee in charge of prisoners has determined that this is the most efficient system for enabling justice.

Of course in reality the first scenario for my character is going to be to see which prisoners get to keep the pod, rations and medical supplies. Unless diplomacy works out this will probably result in plenty of melee combat.

I created the roster of prisoners using a combination of charts from 5150:NB and ATH. To generate the crimes that each passenger was convicted of I rolled 1d6 (1-Arson,2-Kidnapping,3-Mayhem,4-Murder,5-Sedition,6-Treason). To generate the professions of the prisoners I used the criminal element generator in 5150:NB. Then I rolled for Pack(1-3) or Lone(4-6) Wolf for each individual. Followed by the NPC generator in ATH. I plan on having the crime or profession of characters and NPCs modify challenges in the campaign. Thieves are likely to stick together, individuals convicted of similiar crimes stick together and so on.

Here is the happy go lucky group that will be dropped to the surface of the prison planet with my character. (Name,Crime,Profession,Rep,Pep,Fit,Sav,Class,Age,Attribute)

Al Treason Netrunner 4 3 4 2 Pack M Fast
Sue Sedition Thief 3 3 1 2 Pack T Child at Heart
Jose Arson Netrunner 5 4 5 3 Lone M Initiative
Abe Kidnap Ganger 4 3 2 4 Lone T Brawler
Rob Kidnap Ganger 3 1 2 3 Lone O Clumsy
Mike Treason Netrunner 2 1 2 0 Pack O Mooch
Nikki Mayhem Thief 4 4 2 3 Lone T Logical
Hank Kidnap Thief 4 4 2 3 Lone M Stone Cold
Bill Treason Netrunner 4 3 2 4 Pack M Logical