Finally. This Friday, The Verge resumes after a month-long hiatus due to December just being a nightmare to schedule. Over the X-Mas holiday, several of us contracted the beer bug and with others super paranoid, we’re going to be playing entirely online using Fantasy Grounds. We did this in the early weeks of the “pandemic,” when paranoia was super high, and we’ve gotten into the habit of using FG even during the F2F game for character sheets, so this shouldn’t be that big a deal.
Unfortunately, I did a terrible job of prepping during the hiatus, what with getting sick and just slacking off, so now I’m scrambling to make it up. This session will, ideally, be more of a roleplaying opportunity as the characters are heading to the main world of the system after spending most of this “season” out in the Belt. I’ve got three super solid character-specific subplots for Anya, Ilik and Korbin, so I need to work on stuff for the other three; right now, I think I’ve got a pretty solid idea for Rostya, but subplots for Baefre and Niall are completely eluding me.
Anya: Her player has been on an extended hiatus since November due to work and family obligations, so I wrote her out by having her disappear with the “Doctor Who” analogue who has been popping in and out of her life for a while now. She knows that something is really weird about her, what with not having to breath and being able to survive in vacuum and all, so this going to provide her an opportunity to ask some questions of him. I’ve already informed the player and asked if she could spin up a list of some of what she means to ask so I can be prepared as it’s super difficult to play an insanely smart but kind of cryptic character off the top of my head. Currently, at first glance, I’m also ripping off four different franchises with some of my planned answers for expected questions.
Ilik: He’s intent on learning about the Shrike Church so he can figure out some of the weird stuff going on with him, and I’m going to give him an opportunity for that with one of the passengers they’re carrying which, if I play my cards right, will lead into an additional encounter for Ilik which I’m actually looking forward to … so it probably won’t happen. Although, I mostly know how that player’s brain works, so I think I’m okay…
Korbin: His player has really struggled getting into the game … actually, not just this game but others as well, but we’ve sort of had him stumbling into becoming a sort of semi-operative for the duke’s daughter, Princess Natalia, with whom Korbin shares some past as he saved her from some pirates some years ago. So, his subplot in this is going revolve a bit around that, as well as touching on his personal past and one of his rivals. I’m still applying some fine touches on all of that…
Rostya: As noted above, I think I’ve got the elements of an idea that I’m trying coax into a full blown encounter. In a previous session, he did a job for a Collective agent but told the dude (in an intimidating manner) to leave his crew alone; last session, that agent showed back up with some thugs intent on beating him down. The agent also attempted to use the mind control passphrase that had screwed over Rostya in the past as well, but it didn’t work. So I’m currently leaning toward another agent trying to do the same, but the passphrase partially work this time, then wear off super quickly so Rostya could (theoretically) catch said agent completely flat-footed. From this, Rostya can learn that the Collective has effectively signed a death warrant for him due to the first agent. Also, one of his Allies will be in the news, having run afoul of the Collective military command, but that’s a minor point.
Baefre and Niall, however, I currently don’t have anything for and am hoping I can figure out something that’s moderately entertaining for the two of them and pushes forward interesting stories.
My ideal endpoint for the session involves a large-scale surprise attack so I can have the PCs running amok in the middle of said attack in the next session … but the best laid plans of GMs and men …