Jan. 13, 2021

2021.01.12 Last Fleet Episode One

https://blackarmada.com/product/last-fleet/ is a tabletop RPG that follows the remnants of humanity as they flee an implacable alien foe. It's a PBTA love letter to Battlestar Galactica.

We organized and played this game via the...

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Last Fleet is a tabletop RPG that follows the remnants of humanity as they flee an implacable alien foe. It's a PBTA love letter to Battlestar Galactica.

We organized and played this game via the Gauntlet Gaming Community.

Check out the Actual Play video of this session.

Find out more at Jim Likes Games.
Transcript

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.480 Hey everybody, and welcome to just played. This is the podcast where I 2 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:09.240 recap the TIPTOP RPG's I've recently participated in as player or game master. I'm 3 00:00:09.320 --> 00:00:15.519 Jim Crocker and today I will be talking about last fleet. This is a 4 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:19.679 quarterly game that we were playing on the gauntlet and we played our first episode 5 00:00:19.879 --> 00:00:24.239 after our session zero last week. This is sort of an homage to Battlestar 6 00:00:24.359 --> 00:00:27.800 Galactica, love letter to that show, if you will. is about a 7 00:00:27.800 --> 00:00:33.880 fleet of ships escaping from an implacable alien foe. So date for this play 8 00:00:33.960 --> 00:00:38.560 is January twelve. We played it on the Gauntlet gaming community. Last fleet 9 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:41.960 is a powered by the apocalypse system. It is a pretty dense powered by 10 00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:44.960 the apocalypse game and they have a little to say about that later, but 11 00:00:45.039 --> 00:00:48.679 this is our first quarterly episode of what should be a dozen or so once 12 00:00:48.719 --> 00:00:52.840 we run them out over the next couple of months. I facilitated this particular 13 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:56.439 game. I was the MC for it. I had four really great players 14 00:00:56.439 --> 00:01:00.840 in last week. The playbooks all correspond to the Zodiac signs, so there 15 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:03.480 are a dozen or so of them and each of them is meant to embody 16 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:11.640 the characteristics the traits that you might associate with that Zodiac sign. So every 17 00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:15.560 player picks a playbook that corresponds to a Zodiac sign and then, once they've 18 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:19.200 established that, they also choose some roles. So you might have like a 19 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:25.519 Sagittarius pilot or a Leo investigator, and through those combinations that's how we end 20 00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:30.200 up with a unique characters. So we had patrick playing is cosmo Asimov's sort 21 00:01:30.239 --> 00:01:36.040 of Space Elon Musk, like a trillionaire industrialist who had managed to escape the 22 00:01:36.040 --> 00:01:38.599 destruction of earth because he happened to be on his orbital research station when the 23 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:44.239 attack broke out. He is using the Sagittarius playbook. Lole is playing as 24 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:49.640 Tyurini Zimmern, a military and civilian counselor using the libre playbook. Brandon is 25 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:53.959 Lieutenant Commander Laness Hart, a military staff officer, and he's using the capricorn 26 00:01:55.040 --> 00:02:00.319 playbook, and Joe is playing as gunner resergeant Marcus Colt, a marine who's 27 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:04.120 using the virgo playbook. In this case, our starting session is this is 28 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:07.080 our first game, so we had established the parameters of the fleet itself and 29 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:12.280 some of the important characters last time in our zero session. So we opened 30 00:02:12.360 --> 00:02:16.159 this episode with some questions to develop the crisis the fleet had just survived, 31 00:02:16.159 --> 00:02:21.520 which turns out to have been a communications failure during an ambush by the aliens 32 00:02:21.560 --> 00:02:25.400 that led to a civilian fleet vessel being destroyed, along with a squad of 33 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:30.560 Colts Marines who were there to repel any aliens that might have boarded during the 34 00:02:30.599 --> 00:02:34.240 attack. So everyone in the fleet is dealing with that loss right now and 35 00:02:34.280 --> 00:02:38.479 there's some accusations in blame flying around as to whose fault it was, and 36 00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:40.439 so that's the messy situation that we dropped everybody into a the start of the 37 00:02:40.479 --> 00:02:45.639 game. Plot Synopsis For this time around. We opened with a Tyurini and 38 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:52.360 Marcus at one of their evaluations. Marcus is required to visit Turini occasionally to 39 00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:57.360 make sure that he is still fit for duty, and we established that Turny 40 00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:00.919 is just kind of been passing him, not worrying too too much or asking 41 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:02.960 too many questions, of prying too deeply, giving him the stins that he 42 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:07.759 needs to stay awake, just sort of signing off on everything. So Marcus 43 00:03:07.800 --> 00:03:10.919 told her about his frustrations regarding the recent attack and she cleared him for duty, 44 00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:15.520 just like she always has. So cosmo and Lenas met for a drink 45 00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:20.400 at the bar on a luxury liner that is currently housing refugees, and he 46 00:03:20.439 --> 00:03:24.800 asked her for some classified military codes for comms project that he was working on. 47 00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:30.439 He's got codes from everybody else to create this communications network for the fleet, 48 00:03:30.439 --> 00:03:35.039 but the military hasn't agreed, so he is asking her to get them 49 00:03:35.080 --> 00:03:38.520 for him, and she agreed to try and track them down, provided that 50 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:42.080 he is very careful with how he uses them. So after that we followed 51 00:03:42.120 --> 00:03:46.319 cosmo back to his research vessel, where his security chief informed him that a 52 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:52.039 hack of the fleets coms that happened during the recent ambush came from his own 53 00:03:52.039 --> 00:03:55.439 ship. So he tasked her with finding the part is responsible, and she 54 00:03:55.599 --> 00:04:01.240 cracked her knuckles and set off to go do just that. Tarini was confronted, 55 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:06.840 after her shift ended, by Marcus's girlfriend, who demanded that she stopped 56 00:04:06.879 --> 00:04:13.800 prescribing the stems for him and stormed off after Tuerini told her to go talk 57 00:04:13.879 --> 00:04:15.519 to Marcus about it, that it wasn't her problem. She should be talking 58 00:04:15.560 --> 00:04:19.199 to her boyfriend and not her boyfriend's doctor, because, of course, Dr 59 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:26.079 Patient confidentiality, which she didn't think too much of. Meanwhile, Marcus and 60 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:30.360 Lanse were tasked by the admiral who is in charge of the fleet, with 61 00:04:30.399 --> 00:04:33.800 a classified mission to try and communicate with a captive alien being held in the 62 00:04:33.800 --> 00:04:40.040 bowels of the ANDROMEDA. Marcus got assigned to this because he is the only 63 00:04:40.079 --> 00:04:44.439 marine who has ever had contact with these aliens and lived to talk about it. 64 00:04:44.519 --> 00:04:47.079 So he's really the only one that's ever had any first hand experience with 65 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:51.959 seeing them operate or gearing them communicate with each other, and so the admiral's 66 00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:58.480 assigned him to be on this project, with Lannesse overseeing it as the executive 67 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:03.279 officer. So the andromeda is our arch Angel Class dreadnought and that is the 68 00:05:03.279 --> 00:05:06.759 focus of the fleet. That's the great big Battlestar type ship that the fleet 69 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:11.360 orbits around, and we're going to certainly see a lot more of that as 70 00:05:11.439 --> 00:05:15.920 the game progresses. Our final scene saw lanes, after all this was over, 71 00:05:15.079 --> 00:05:19.600 going to the COMMS officer on the Andromeda to try and get ahold of 72 00:05:19.639 --> 00:05:26.240 those codes that cosmo needed, only to be confronted with an intercepted broadcast right 73 00:05:26.279 --> 00:05:30.279 now being blocked from rest the fleet by the Andromeda that showed her presumed dead 74 00:05:30.279 --> 00:05:36.480 twin sister, supposedly lost in the attack on Earth, broadcasting alien propaganda meant 75 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:41.759 to demoralize the fleet. As far as our ending fictional state for this episode 76 00:05:41.800 --> 00:05:44.800 goes, I let everybody do a little epilog to kind of show at the 77 00:05:44.879 --> 00:05:47.879 end of the episode where all these characters were. Marcus was standing and staring 78 00:05:47.879 --> 00:05:51.079 at the crippled alien and having no idea what to do next. It's kind 79 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:57.199 of outside of his regular remit as a ground pounding marine. Lynette was telling 80 00:05:57.199 --> 00:06:00.079 the COMMS officer that she was headed to the admiral directly to get ahead of 81 00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:04.399 this before somebody else told the admiral about it, and that comes officer looked 82 00:06:04.439 --> 00:06:09.920 relieve that it wasn't her that had to bring that news. COSMO was standing 83 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:15.360 there and looking at a grainy, silent image of that same broadcast that his 84 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:19.439 text had managed to grab, despite the military jamming it. So he has 85 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:25.720 only a grainy picture that looks very much like his friend Linesse delivering this message 86 00:06:25.800 --> 00:06:29.040 without any sound because they're doing their best to try and get through the military 87 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:31.800 jamming it. And finally, Uterini, sitting at her desk issuing the order 88 00:06:31.800 --> 00:06:39.279 for Marcus to start detoxing off of the stem. So apparently his girlfriend did 89 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:43.000 actually get through to her after all. My favorite player moment from this particular 90 00:06:43.040 --> 00:06:46.199 session was the great stuff all the way through. It's just for fantastic players 91 00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:50.000 I'm really happy to be sharing this game with, but in particular the opening 92 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:58.199 exchange between Lulls Terni and Joe's Marcus really set the emotional stakes of the whole 93 00:06:58.199 --> 00:07:03.399 series and also established this therapeutic relationship that's going to be really cool to develop 94 00:07:03.439 --> 00:07:05.920 and put pressure on. So as far as I could tell, they're not 95 00:07:05.959 --> 00:07:10.959 friends, but they respect each other and it's going to be an interesting relationship 96 00:07:11.040 --> 00:07:16.680 to see build and what direction it goes on, given the professional obligations and 97 00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:21.079 the fact that they have to spend time with each other, but other pressures 98 00:07:21.079 --> 00:07:26.240 may mean that they're not actually friends, so looking forward to seeing how all 99 00:07:26.279 --> 00:07:30.600 that rattles out. My favorite chaming moment for me was getting to create and 100 00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:36.639 portray cosmos hard ass security chief. Corporate security guns are like the worst people 101 00:07:36.680 --> 00:07:41.920 in the world. There's so much fun in role playing games and I already 102 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:46.959 hate her, which is great for a major GMC like that and I'm thrilled 103 00:07:46.040 --> 00:07:48.920 to see how much of a pain in the ass she turns out to be, 104 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:54.800 just for everybody, especially COSMO. As far as missed opportunities this session, 105 00:07:54.879 --> 00:07:57.959 we are definitely still a little rocky on the rules. Last fleet, 106 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:01.160 like I said before, is a very dense iteration of PBTA. There's a 107 00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:07.199 lot of subsystems, there's multiple currencies, sliders and clocks and stuff to keep 108 00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:11.040 track of and I definitely didn't have it down as well as I really would 109 00:08:11.079 --> 00:08:13.879 have liked to in this first session. Specifically, the thing that I really 110 00:08:13.879 --> 00:08:20.040 missed was that the relationship level that you have with other pcs allows you to 111 00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:24.240 substitute the number for your stat on certain moves. The stats in this game 112 00:08:24.279 --> 00:08:28.000 are extremely tight. There's a one to plus one range. You got to 113 00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:31.879 level up before you get anything up to plus two and the consequences for Mrs 114 00:08:31.879 --> 00:08:37.120 are pretty severe. But this is one of the ways that this game compensates 115 00:08:37.159 --> 00:08:39.879 for that and it's really important to have it there to balance out that tight 116 00:08:41.080 --> 00:08:45.000 stat range. So I'm a little disappointed in myself, but it's also a 117 00:08:45.120 --> 00:08:48.879 very dense game, so we didn't really touch on that aspect. To play 118 00:08:48.879 --> 00:08:52.080 when we played this evening and in fact we had someone asked about it and 119 00:08:52.279 --> 00:08:54.759 off the top of my head I couldn't tell them what the answer was. 120 00:08:54.799 --> 00:08:58.159 So look that up. And this is definitely something that's going to clearly be 121 00:08:58.200 --> 00:09:01.879 an important part of the game going forward that I wish I had paid more 122 00:09:01.879 --> 00:09:05.519 attention to first time out of the gate. So I definitely need another readthrough 123 00:09:05.559 --> 00:09:09.720 of the rules, to prefer next week, to be on top of everything 124 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:13.399 as the action ramps up and we start bringing in some of those other rules 125 00:09:13.399 --> 00:09:16.679 I talked about, especially something like attrition, which is an abstract numerical measurement 126 00:09:16.720 --> 00:09:20.240 of the fleets resources and have banged up. It is, though, affect 127 00:09:20.279 --> 00:09:24.320 the fleet's ability to deal with threats, doom clocks, things like that that 128 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:28.039 I want to make sure I'm fully versed on and familiar with before we get 129 00:09:28.159 --> 00:09:31.720 rolling again next week. So the thing I noticed with this session is that 130 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:35.559 when I start a new campaign like this one, I generally just sort of 131 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:41.519 brainstorm a bunch of ideas and hooks from character backgrounds and our world building that 132 00:09:41.639 --> 00:09:45.480 grabbed me that I think might be interesting, that just sort of spring into 133 00:09:45.559 --> 00:09:48.080 my head through the week as I'm going along to sort of turning the game 134 00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:54.080 over in my head and the world that we've created for ourselves. Explicitly banking 135 00:09:54.120 --> 00:09:58.799 these ideas to turn into hard moves for powered by the Apocalypse Games is something 136 00:09:58.840 --> 00:10:05.080 that I now realize I've been doing all along but never really consciously made a 137 00:10:05.080 --> 00:10:09.639 part of my prep for these games. I don't need much in the way 138 00:10:09.639 --> 00:10:15.799 of prep to run most PBTA Games, and especially something like masks, where 139 00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:18.519 the genre is second nature to me, and you know, I've been reading 140 00:10:18.720 --> 00:10:22.039 superhero comics since I was eight years old. So I don't need a ton 141 00:10:22.120 --> 00:10:26.320 of advance prep to just throw you know, comic book e Type Ideas He 142 00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:31.720 and as move softens and hard moves in a game like that. But for 143 00:10:31.799 --> 00:10:35.759 something like this, where I've got the one show as a touchstone but I'm 144 00:10:35.759 --> 00:10:41.360 not necessarily as familiar with this kind of military SF the nastiest herd move I 145 00:10:41.399 --> 00:10:46.919 made this session was available to me specifically because one of those ideas I put 146 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:52.279 down just as I was brainstorming jumped right out at me from that session zero 147 00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:56.000 prep. It was something that one of the player characters included in their background 148 00:10:56.039 --> 00:11:01.000 and it's specifically that twin sister that was supposedly lost in the invasion. So 149 00:11:01.039 --> 00:11:07.120 the take home there is to use all that session zero stuff to preload like 150 00:11:07.159 --> 00:11:11.159 a double handful of potential hard moves and have them ready to go. You 151 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:15.639 may never use them or the perfect time to introduce them may just pop up 152 00:11:15.720 --> 00:11:20.200 right away, but having them ready to go like that will help alleviate the 153 00:11:20.200 --> 00:11:22.519 problem that I know I run into sometimes in PBTA Games, and I'm sure 154 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:28.200 it must be a thing the other MC's encounter, which is the challenge of 155 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:31.720 creating them on the fly as specially if the dice are not falling the players 156 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:33.679 way and you need to do several of them in a row. It's great 157 00:11:33.720 --> 00:11:37.360 to have that ready to go and to think of that session zero and everything 158 00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:43.879 spinning out of it as campaign prep as opposed to just prep for individual sessions 159 00:11:43.960 --> 00:11:46.080 that you might do an hour or two before the game starts. So just 160 00:11:46.120 --> 00:11:50.320 a little take home from this particular session. I think it's going to be 161 00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:52.600 helpful to me going forward. That's all for this episode. Thanks so much 162 00:11:52.679 --> 00:11:56.120 for listening. Really happy to be back. Hoping to do more regular episodes 163 00:11:56.200 --> 00:12:01.039 here with the new year, so stay tuned for more if you're enjoying the 164 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:03.200 show, please do rate it and review it wherever you found it. That 165 00:12:03.240 --> 00:12:07.440 will always help other people find it. Check out the show notes for a 166 00:12:07.559 --> 00:12:09.480 video of this session, if one's available. We definitely did make one eye 167 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:13.399 uploaded it to youtube, so that'll be there in the show notes and also 168 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:16.240 be a linked to where you can get your own copy of last fleet. 169 00:12:16.279 --> 00:12:20.639 As always, you can follow me on twitter at Jim Likes Games, and 170 00:12:20.679 --> 00:12:24.519 I'm now back on Facebook as Jim Likes Games, Crocker Cro C K are. 171 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:30.639 I would love to get enough youtube followers to customize my youtube channel Url 172 00:12:30.679 --> 00:12:33.600 so you can find me there. On Youtube as Jim Likes Games, where 173 00:12:33.639 --> 00:12:37.120 you can watch the videos of a whole lot of stuff I'm playing, in 174 00:12:37.159 --> 00:12:43.559 addition to the episodes of talk about on just played. So I guess that's 175 00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:46.559 it. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go play another game.