After two days at sea, the airship washed up on the shore of a remote island inhabited solely by a large clan of mice who harvest coal for the precious stone that are sometimes hidden inside. The aeronaut meet a rather curious and strangely adventuristic mouse named Pac who was able to sneak the aeronauts ship into the coal deposit. After quickly filling the engine room with enough coal to make their way back to Industria the strange pair left the island.
It took only a few minutes to realize that once again the aeronaut was in trouble. His companion had misplaced his lighter, he had forgotten to stock the ship with food and water, and he couldn't manage to fill the balloon by himself. Frustrated he put aside his labors for the evening, and set to sleep. In the morning the mouse and the aeronaut were greeted by the aeronauts long time friend and spotter named Roger. Roger explained why the engine ran so hot, and showed the aeronaut that the stange looking boiler sitting inside the engine room was not boiler but in fact was the latest invention the Inventor had created. They loaded the strange contraption with coal and watched as it's bellows glowed to life.Nobody was sure exactly what to expect from the contraption, not even Roger, except that it was supposed to take the place of a stoker and that the Inventor had referred to it as a Man.
Some things to think about:
ReplyDelete1. Flying! Pac has never left the island, much less flown. How incredible will this be to him?
2. The ship has no food, no water, and no lighter. The gas lamp will run out any minute now, how will the crew light the engine or the stoker if either goes out again?
3. What dynamic does the Man add to the ship? What do you think about this new creation that the Inventor has created?
4. Roger said that the Man is more important than the airship; he is the upgrade that the Inventor has been working on. The upgrade is separate machine, independent of the ship. Is it the Man or the aeronaut who will make circumnavigation possible?
There isn't to much you can do about your situation just yet. However you will get an opportunity to acquire all of the missing wares that you need. Keep an eye of next session for that opportunity. Also, remember you are racing the clock to get back to Industria before the Inventor finds out about any of this.
Another thing to think about:
ReplyDelete5. Think of Animalisms (your ears perk up when you hear a noise, you fan your tail when your frustrated, etc.) Try to use them to make your characters more real.
I used it when Roger appeared on the airship. He hopped around when he moved, and cocked his head to size up Pac. It's minor, but it goes a long way. Remember you are an animal, use body language.
Impulsive orbit transfer is the common method for spacecraft to travel from one circular orbit to the other. This is done with two impulses: one to put the satellite into an orbital path that has an eccentricity between 0 and 1, and the second one to return it to an elliptical path with an eccentricity of 1 (but obviously at a different orbital radius).
ReplyDeleteIn 1925, Walter Hohmann derived a way to make the two-impulse orbit efficient. If the ellipical path of the transfer orbit was tangential to both circular paths, it would result in a minimal amount of fuel. He discovered that this could be accomplished if the semimajor axis of the transfer orbit was half of the sum of both orbital radii. Because of this discovery, this transfer was named the Hohmann transfer.
Please note that this is simplified, and does not account for any pertubations of any orbits. Such possibilities are atmospheric drag for LEO, oblateness of the orbital body,
Comments on Adam's notes:
ReplyDelete2. Pac, I'm going to get a little upset that you lost that lighter. As for finding food/water, I think Roger is going to have to find a food source. I'd like to just land on another nearby island, but I don't know if there is one available, or how much that would slow us down. However, if we only have two days to get home, perhaps we can tough it out? I did fill up my canteen before I left the island.
3/4. I'm not sure what to think about the man yet. I'm intrigued, but I'm wondering why The Inventor didn't tell me about it. It obviously isn't something that took a day or two to build, so he must have been working on it for a while. I'll have to make sure to inspect it more thoroughly in order to distract from my hunger.
5. I know we want to be furries in this adventure, but I'm not sure when I'm going to want to use my anal scent gland. And yes, that is the techincal term, I looked it up on Wikipedia.
Also, my previous post was more food for thought regarding item #1.
I thought the comment about the Hohmann transfer was addressing #4: The significance behind a breakthrough.
ReplyDeleteIf the goal is to circumnavigate (or change orbital paths) it is still the ingenuity behind the concept that makes it possible.
Thus, changing orbital paths is made possible by knowing how large of a semimajor axis to have, resource management, and navigation. Circumnavigating, on the other hand, is a function of crew size (including a Man), resource management, and navigation.
In both cases, the catalyst is invention, even if computers or a Man facilitate the result. The individuals behind the invention take the credit, not the grunts. Thus in our game: the inventor is the King, and the aeronaut is the Pawn.
Although you said that it was intended to support #1 instead of #4...
I guess you were just trying to show how complex spaceflight is, thus blowing our minds, just as Pac must feel the moment he experiences flight for the first time.
Is that what you were getting at?
Addressing Bauer's comment 3/4:
ReplyDeleteThe Inventor did tell you that he was making an upgrade to the ship, he just never told you exactly what it was. In Industria where, "invention is the hand that turns the wheel of production," research is carefully guarded.
Nobody could beat you up and steal your skill as an aeronaut, but they could beat you up and steal from you the latest concept the Inventor is developing.
Also, the Man may not have been developed as a Stoker in the first place. The Inventor may have had something else in mind for him, but failed to make it work, so he resolved to put him to work for you.
No matter how you look at it the Inventor was protecting his own interests and your safety by not telling you. Look at what you did the minute you caught wind that the ship was upgraded... you stole it for a test flight. What might Otto have done with the Man, had he access to him during development. It would seem that Otto is occasionally to anxious for his own good.
A clarification in regards to Bauer's comment 2:
ReplyDeleteYou were at sea for two days. The return flight should take a little over a SINGLE day's time. You could make it without food and water, if you were forced to, but if presented with a chance to get food, chances are you will make good on the opportunity. Hunger makes people do stupid things, animals even more so: http://www.break.com/index/raccoon-runs-into-bonfire.html
Getting food is a perfect opportunity for a player to allow his character to make a mistake for the sake of creating conflict.
Ex: Han Solo didn't have to trust Lando even after he said he had a bad feeling about it on Bespin, but he does. The shit hits the fan as a result, and voila! The Empire Strikes Back becomes the best of the Trilogy.
Perhaps I am player coaching too much, I shall say no more...
Yes, my point was (poorly) to demonstrate that if you don't understand a concept (or the idea of what is Industria), how would you react to it?
ReplyDeleteAddressing Bauer's comment above:
ReplyDeleteHow did the historical characters in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure react to modern day Los Angeles? The situation is similar. I am not looking to turn this into a comedy, but you can draw parallels.
A couple more things to think about:
6. What was Pac's goal in joining the crew of the airship? Was it to get to Industria only? If this is the case what will Pac do if Otto asks him to do something really dangerous? What if Pac is required to seriously risk his life to help the crew?
Is having the mere chance to see Industria worth dying for? Skip, planted the seed in Pac's mind that his sense of adventure might get him killed. Is the trip worth taking if Pac dies before reaching his goal?
How much is Pac willing to risk to accomplish his goal?
7. What can Otto do to force Pac's cooperation if a situation calls for a task that only a mouse can do and Pac refuses to help?
How much is Otto willing to risk to save his career and his dream of circumnavigation?
A general question (don't answer, just consider):
The link that binds Otto and Pac is very weak, what will happen to that link when it is put under pressure?
I'm watching a movie right now called "The Mutant Cronicals" I don't know if its based on the board game or not. It's full of this steam punk stuff. It's based in the future, but all the machines are running on coal. Right now there is a bald guy no shirt shoveling loads of coal into a furnace to power this ship they are on....my god its loud! I think we need to add that noise aspect to the game. Its really LOUD, even on deck we should be burdened by the noise of the engine, and below deck in the engine room; HOLLY CRAP! Its a good thing the "Man" I in there to deal with that.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that the movie is based on the miniatures game.
ReplyDeleteYes the engine room is loud, dirty, and hotter than hell. A stokers job is rough, hence the value of having a Man be able to handle it.
The engine is about as loud as a locomotive's engine. So it is a nuisance, but it's not overbearing.
Janz, have you any thoughts on what has been said above?
-Bauer asked-
ReplyDelete"Remind me again, because Bill and I were talking about it yesterday, what makes my character so interesting?"
-My answer-
Purpose, purpose, purpose.
I asked the question on the blog:
6. What was Pac's goal in joining the crew of the airship? Was it to get to Industria only? If this is the case what will Pac do if Otto asks him to do something really dangerous? What if Pac is required to seriously risk his life to help the crew?
Is having the mere chance to see Industria worth dying for? Skip, planted the seed in Pac's mind that his sense of adventure might get him killed. Is the trip worth taking if Pac dies before reaching his goal?
How much is Pac willing to risk to accomplish his goal?
Pac is pure reaction, no action. Recall our phone conversation about reactive and proactive players. Pac has no motivation unless someone lights a fire under his ass. He doesn’t need to go anywhere. We don’t even know why he left in the first place. He wasn’t running from anything or anyone. He isn’t seeking anything in particular (but he could be, we just don’t know it yet)
Pac can be turned into a great character, but it won’t happen until after this game is over. When you get back to Industria, maybe Pac can sign on to the crew. He could be part of the first circumnavigation trip, he could become famous. Maybe there is some task on the airship that only a mouse would be good at. Pac’s story gets good later, but we aren’t going to play the part where Pac becomes a main character. He can only be a sidekick until he finds a goal, and then risks something to achieve that goal. Again:
How much is Pac willing to risk to accomplish his goal? Is the trip worth taking if Pac dies before reaching his goal?
Risking your life sounds like a great thing to risk, but actually it really weak if that’s all that’s on the line. It makes for flat story telling. I have been saying this for years now, and it keeps happening.
Otto is risking his career, his dream of circumnavigation, risking his prospect of ever flying again, and finally his life. Later, Otto’s compass might be risked, which would be two fold (losing a family heirloom, and losing your way home). There are several things on the line making the question much easier for Otto to answer:
How much is Otto willing to risk to save his career and his dream of circumnavigation?
There are stakes, and he can pick and choose what he is willing to risk and lose. When all you have to lose is your life it never gets complicated…
***Closing remark (attempting to summarize):
Indiana Jones make a great character because at any given moment he must make a choice to either save:
1. The girl
2. The treasure
3. His partner
4. His hat
5. His life
There are probably more things at stake, but regardless this just proves the point that, the more things that are at risk, the more options the story teller has to create meaningful scenes that put the protagonist in danger of losing something dear to them, which causes the character to make hard choices.
Its only the first session. I think we need to give it some time before we can really get into some deep conversation about the game and characters. We might be trying to force awesomeness when we need to just let it happen. Remember the first day of KOR. We had to do some GM editing and erase some things Caldwell said.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Janz and I just had a long conversation and the summary goes like this:
ReplyDeleteThe Blog Comments if for discussions between the players. It should be observational, and conversational. When you have a thought, or just want to highlight something that worked well or totally failed post a comment.
The actual Blog post will be for the GM to post. It's just a summary to help the players remember where the game will start off next time.
I am going to leave the comments to you guys (for the most part). I will dump questions to you, I will lend advise from time to time, but really the comments are so that you two can get excited, and also to show me what is going well or poorly.
I will not be posting anything on the blog anymore that could and should be dealt with in session.
That all said, don't disregard my thoughts above, mull them over, and bring your thoughts on them to the game.
I will give a better explanation of our conversation before we begin next session just to clear the air.
I am excited to play. See you two at 6:00 (or earlier if you can make it).