Title: Not my best day ever.
Well, picking up from where we left off, we had 2 injured crew members and our beautiful ship was nose planted into the mud in the middle of what my dear mother would call "buttf*ck nowhere" on Higgin's Moon. We had yet to see combat.
Mercifully, the ship was alright, at least. And we had a quest! And, so far unknown to my players, they were about to come into possession of a ship. I made the mistake, once again, of having it all planned out: Kai was going to go talk to the robber gang, get killed (obviously), the crew would inherit the ship and all its mooing cargo, and would be able to go sell the cows and turn a tidy profit therefrom. If they were feeling really adventurous, I'd made the robbers stupid enough to have their camp rigged with mines, so all the crew would have to do is set off a few of them and the whole place would blow. The crew could then scavenge all sorts of goody from the rubble, including the pocketwatch quest item I'd set up last session, and no one would have to fire a shot. The session would be all character interaction, dialogue, spot checks, bartering, and figuring out what they wanted to do with their brand new ship.
The first part goes brilliantly. Everyone is on board for the decision Kai makes to go down and barter. I can see tension mount amongst the crew as the time narratively ticks by. Players are clearly starting to understand that this is a major hiccup, and, just as clearly, different crew members are having different reactions to the situation, forming different theories about what's now expected of them and where the story is going from here. However, unlike our first couple sessions, a pattern of leadership is apparent, and even a loose decision-making hierarchy among the crew. Awesome! Clearly people are settling into their characters. I am almost bursting with pride as Wren makes the call down to the bandit camp, nearly wriggling with self-congratulatory glee as I describe the bandits holding up the (obviously, to my mind) dead Kai. I do a quick mental inventory of all the clues I have set up about the explosives ringing the camp, the armaments of the ship, etc. I try not to look too pleased with myself.
And then they decided to mount a rescue mission.
I sat in mounting dread as characters with no gun or fighting skills whatsoever planned a full-on ground infiltration of what I had established as a well-planned camp of armed, murderous bandits. Between desperately asking my players whether they were SURE that they wanted to do this, and half-heartedly overseeing their lockpicking of the different armaments rooms on ship, I took stock of the situation. I had already given descriptions of the bandits in the tavern, and had established the red haired twins and the uber creepy brunette; I had them established as a 'band' of robbers, but hadn't specified how many of them there were - that was something, at least. Maybe I had some wiggle room there; and, after all, maybe Molly and Will would manage to sneak in to the camp. Afterall, the bandits would only really have sentries covering the road...
...the road that Molly and Will decide to walk straight down towards the camp.
Right. Ok. Fine. If that's how they want to play it, that's how we're going to play it.
So, obviously they get captured, and obviously they get taken to the headhonchos. I've realised by now that nothing will induce my crew to abandon my NPC Kai, so I decide to cut the apron strings and let Molly and Will get up close and personal with hard evidence of both the bad-ness of the predicament they're in and irrefutable proof of Kai's demise. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy leading my players through the PTSD bunker. That's normal, though, right? Sure. Everyone feels like that.
While team 1 (Molly and Will) and team 2 (Wren, Todd, and Cale) are deciding what they should do, I decide on a strategy. Admittedly, it hinges pretty hard on being able to roll dice where my players can't see them, but given that we've all just started to settle into the campaign I really don't want this to result in a party-wipe. That being said, there's nothing to say it needs to be a cakewalk either. My players are set on having a bit of violence, I figure, may as well give them what they want. I jot some quick numbers for my baddies and let the fun begin.
In fairness to my players, I only need to fudge a couple rolls, and almost all of them are Cale taking care of the sentries ringing the camp. I might find some of my players methods (and choices) dubious, but they're all quick on their feet and fully involved in the story, and a good dozen rounds of combat go by in the blink of an eye. When team 2 finally manage to get Will and Molly clear, and they blast the camp to smithereens, there's a real sense of the victory being earned. No one remembers the pocket watch fetch quest, but it doesn't really matter.
My Big Damn Heroes collect their just reward from the office in Jaynestown and find the handy-dandy IOU plot points in the late Kai's desk. After a bit of in-character bickering, they decide to name their new ship after the situation which led to their possession of it: The Calamity.
I wholeheartedly agree.
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