Shining Star (Working title)
Setting:
The colony ship “The Shining Star” 50 years after a massive explosion tore chunks out of the ship and sent her spinning off course, The ship is 8 miles long, but much of it has been abandoned. Small holdings have coalesced around powerful individuals but the areas between the holdings are almost as dark and cold as the space outside the ship. (Special rules - everything has a "low on resources" special rule, 1-Barter only covers a week living expenses, XP on highlighted stats only once per scene. And of course, learn a secret etc when someone resets Hx.)
Characters:
Captain Merkel (Dave) – middle-aged Hardholder of “The Bridge,” a small holding that collects tribute from other holdings for keeping the lights on and the ship flying. They have a command crew and a defense force called the “Red Shirts.”
Sparkle (Lauren) – is a Chopper who's brightly-garbed gang, “The Pony Express” live close to the border between the main part of the ship and the aft where the mutated survivors of the Engineering explosion live. The gang has taken it upon themselves to stop the Afterburners from coming forward, but nobody else knows why.
Ghost (Scott) – is a grimy, bizarre Savvyhead who works for any and all who can pay and is one of the only survivors of Engineering.
Burke (Derek) – is a Driver with access to a transport pod/shuttle. Originally an apprentice of the command crew on the Bridge, he discovered a love of freedom and went out on his own. He is tattooed and be-studded.
Saffron (Kevin) – runs the Gem saloon as Maestro'D. She has “booze” and table games for any paying customers to let off steam. Many people on the ship use her establishment as neutral ground for meetings and intrigue. Her bouncer is named Adams.
Domino (Hank) – is Burke's cousin and a Gunlugger. She wants to help look out for the little guys on the ship, and has the firepower to back up her desires.
Episode 1:
Ghost has just finished restoring full power to the Bridge (7-9 Wealth roll, want = anxiety, Ghost took 1 Harm aiding, Wealth and Bonefeel are the ONLY opening moves!) and Captain Merkel takes him to the Gem to discuss his future. Ghost had been working alone, but the Captain is insisting that he take on some apprentices to ensure that they can keep the ship floating for the future. Ghost agrees to vet some apprentices if the Captain can find him some. Saffron reads the Captain and confirms that he still carries a torch for her, but she has no interest in restarting their teen fling. As each group of PCs have their first scenes, there is a shudder that runs through the ship...
Sparkle gets the news that a raiding party of Afterburners has broken through her cordon and is heading to the fore of the ship. She sends some of her gang aft to deliver a message to the raiding party's tribe and takes a wounded gang member to a holding called Medical to see the doctor who calls herself Captain Rose.
Burke and Domino are coming back from meeting up with the nomadic Tubers to do some trading. They notice some small holes in the port side of the ship. They dock and attempt to find Ghost and (using Open your Brain mainly as Open your Brain to the "Ship") can see him on security cameras. Ghost has just discovered the source of the shudder. Someone aft is siphoning power from parts of the ship they shouldn't be. The cousins see there is something stalking Ghost from behind! They rush to his aid.
Captain Merkel heads to another holding: “The Mess.” Fredricks runs a slavery operation from there. It stinks of unwashed and mis-treated people. Leaving his Red Shirts outside, the Captain works out a deal with Fredricks to find some apprentices for Ghost. Fredricks is cagey (or the Captain is unlucky at all his Read rolls) and can see that the Captain is disgusted by him and would rather the Mess was in different hands.
Sparkle works out some deals with Captain Rose to deliver messages for her if the Pony Express can have preferred customer status. Once they are in general agreement, Sparkle takes some of her boys towards the Gem for some R&R.
Burke and Domino are just in time to save Ghost from... himself? They beat up his stalker and it looks exactly like Ghost. After ensuring that everyone is who they say they are, they decide to take the “body” to Medical for examination. Suddenly, the inert form awakens and flees through the ducts. Domino tries to open up on it with her arsenal, but Ghost knocks her weapon aside, hitting a plasma conduit! It starts to overheat. Burke goes chasing after the “chameleon”, tracking it with Open your Brain, Domino flees for the hills and Ghost stays to try and stop the conduit from exploding.
Sparkle and her gangers wander into the Gem, loudly looking for someone to buy them drinks. They say they should get special treatment since they keep the Afterburners where they belong (not mentioning the raiding party...). Saffron politely asks them to leave and the Ponies finish their drinks outside the bar in an effort to scare off customers.
Ghost is able to stop a major explosion by choosing to create a series of smaller explosions in the power system (instead of taking damage and no explosions.) Burke has followed the chameleon as far as he can as it somehow crawls into the space between inner and outer hulls and scampers away even though that area is vacuum... The trio head to the Bridge to report to the Captain.
Saffron has closed up the Gem as it is now late, but is awakened by the sound of an intruder in the bar. She confronts it and finds what looks to be Sparkle searching for something behind the bar. Sparkle runs for the door and Saffron lets her go. Checking her stock, it would seem that Sparkle was looking through chemicals and reagents as opposed to food or drink. Adams shows back up having just been on a date with one of the Pony Express and brings the news that Sparkle has been asleep in her bunk for the last hour...
On the Bridge, the Captain had also been asleep but is roused to hear a litany of horror stories from Ghost, Burke and Domino. He chooses to dismiss the stories of the mythic chameleons, assuming insanity or drunkenness on their part. Their meeting is interrupted by First Mate Commander Jeffries, who reports that an Afterburner raiding party has kidnapped the female second mate, Lt. King. The Captain rouses everyone and they go hunting for Afterburners.
(Two holdings we know of but haven't interacted with yet: the hydroponics "Dome" run by Greenpeace and "Portland" run by Honeychile.)
Looking forward to crashing this ship into something! hahaha
Dave