On Mon, Aug 15, 2016 at 4:43 PM, Timothy Collinson <xxxxxx@port.ac.uk> wrote:

- has anyone got a 'fixed' map of the Itzeny Church which has no staircase from the 1st floor to the second floor and the second floor to the third floor (although it *is* marked on the third floor and I'm guessing that's NOT access to roof space!).  (My best fix is to replace a bit of a dormitory on the third floor, an office on the 2nd floor and an office on the 1st floor - but before I redraw all the floor plans....)

I don't recall needing one. When I ran it for my old college group, they just blasted a hole through the church wall with the March Harrier's pulse laser turret, then jumped out through said hole directly into the airlock.

 

 

- has anyone got a colour map of Pysadi?  (This is not critical, the nice b/w will do just fine.)

Nope. I just described it as "a nice Earthlike world with a minor atmospheric taint" and let it go at that.

 

 

- would advice be to do the first three pages of background on Pysadi as a handout *before* the evening, a handout *on* the evening, somehow deliver it to players as the evening goes on, or just use it as briefing for the Ref?  There's a heck of a lot there which will be difficult to do on the evening as a handout or as delivery, but it kind of seems necessary.

Only give details as and when the players ask for these and to the extent that they appear to be interested. Any other course just leads to bored and frustrated players.

Of course, after the first few times that the players fail to ask about things like odd local customs and weird native wildlife - and then have such lack of knowledge turn out to bite them on the ass later - they'll start asking. But until that happens, just smile and agree with whatever they decide to try.

 

 

- does anyone have a handy CT or MgT animal encounter table?  (not to worry if not, will just use a prepared one from the Animal encounters book, but just thought I'd ask)

Sorry. I only rarely used those. Mostly I just winged it.

 

 

- ok, so the howood is valuable and prices are good - but who actually wants it?  anyone in the subsector or is there some market in mind?  (I guess the bigger question here is why should the PCs (and the players) care to beetle off into the boonies to harvest the stuff with all the explosive risk there is?!)

Don't worry about selling the howood off-planet. Just make acquiring the necessary permits and licenses to take it off planet too difficult/expensive for them.

Then have a local cargo factor (who already has all the requisite bits of paper) offer to buy the stuff for an amount that covers whatever they spent on its acquisition, plus a [very] small profit. That's what I was planning to do. 

Of course, in the event my group ended up leaving the planet with port control loudly cursing them about their church prison break. Which meant that upon arrival at their destination they had to sell the howood on the black market - for a tiny fraction of it's value - because it was (essentially) stolen goods.

Oh! And don't worry about the logic of gathering a speculative cargo using explosives. PCs *love* any excuse to use explosives. They'll think it's going to be a breeze, because the trees will hardly be able to shoot back. Right? <evil grin> 

  

 

- am I right in thinking there is more than 3 or 4 hours of play here?  The more I look at this, the more I suspect it probably should be (or will be) a couple of sessions?

It was a couple of sessions for my group, if I remember correctly. Session 1 organizing the expedition then mining the howood. Sesson 2 getting it back to civilization, then getting arrested for attempting to export a pair of those psionic monkeys and leaving expeditiously.

 

- has anyone got any tips on just how you keep so much info in your head at one time - rules, NPCs, plot...  I've read the chapter three times, made notes of key bits, tried to come up with names of ships/NPCs/animals that the text doesn't bother to give you even though they seem to be key NPCs etc and still feel the whole thing is daunting.

Don't obsess about it. Just take it one step at a time. And remember - if you flub something, just brazen it out and pretend that's what you meant to do all along. Your players will never know the difference.

 

 

Right, I'm off to see if I can do 'voices' for my NPCs which I'd love to be able to manage.

If you can't do an actual accent (I find that very hard), pick a couple of choice exclamations or gestures for each NPC. Or give them a speech impediment, such as a lisp. Whatever you choose, MAKE A NOTE . . . so that you can remember what it was you were doing, in case they come back to see that same NPC later and so you don't use that particular bit for another NPC too soon down the road.

 

 

 

t "aren't I supposed to be looking forward to this?" c

I *always* get stage fright before running a face-to-face session, even after over thirty years. But once I start, it goes away and things generally go fine.