After quite a long time of trying to get a group together, I finally got to test out my Mass Effect hack last night. It was a real proud papa type moment for me, as this is the first hack I've put enough effort into for it to actually get to a playable state.
We started off with group character creation. Our team came together as a Human Engineer, a Drell Infiltrator, and a Turian Sentinel. Character creation, including the Relationship Map that I borrowed from Smallville, took up about two hours. Once that was done, the group named their ship (the MSV Triton) and decided to play a Privateer style game; starting out with a janky old ship, working their way up from the bottom. We decide to play in the post-First Contact War / pre-Mass Effect 1 era. None of them have decided on names yet, so I'll refer to them by their race for the time being.
As with all great stories this one starts out in a bar on Palaven, waiting for laborers to finish loading cargo onto the ship. The PCs order drinks and engage in some chitchat with each other. I have them all roll a notice roll against the Doom Pool (a piddly 2d6, since this is a dive bar in a minor port city). All three players succeed at noticing a pair of Turians looking to start a fight with the only Krogan in the bar. They know things like this tend to get ugly and quick, so they decide to GTFO. I throw them each a plot point and tell them that both doors are blocked by the Turians' friends. The Drell decided to sneak up and try to knock out one of the attacking Turians. The Human sent his Combat Drone out the front door to alert the authorities. Our Turian simply sat at the bar, enjoying her drink.
The Drell dropped a Plot Point to create a Stunt off his Sniper Rifle, a hidden stun gun inside the stock. The prongs just happen to extend out the butt of the gun. He rolls, gets a 14 with a d10 effect die. The Turian is reeling, but still up. Meanwhile, the Combat Drone finds a pair of policetypes walking down the street nearby. The Human rolls a convince-the-cops-to-help-out roll, getting a 12 with a d8 effect die. He tells the cops that there's a Krogan starting a fight in the bar and that he will probably end up killing two or more civilians if they don't hurry. The cops follow his Drone back to the scene of the crime. I write Palaven Police Patrol D8 on a notecard and hand it to the player. The Combat Drone leads the cops into the bar.
Bad Guys' turn. The Turians both pull knives, slashing at the Krogan. The Krogan activates his Fortification and headbutts the uninjured Turian.
Top of the order, the Drell declares that he's going to try to talk the Injured Turian into standing down. The Human hands him the D8 Police asset, under the auspices of them helping with his Menace roll. He rolls, gets a 12 with a d10 effect die. The player has a bright idea. He hands me a Plot Point and says that he wants to convert the Mental Stress into Physical Stress. It turns out that the Turian was goaded into attacking instead of standing down and the police shot him. I like it. The Turian drops.
The Krogan interrupts the Human, so the Human's player gets a Plot Point. The afore mentioned Krogan decides to completely punk the remaining Turian. A headbutt from an armored Krogan Helmet is enough to knock the Turian not unconsciousness. At this point, the remaining bar patrons riot. Our PCs decide that now is the time to beat a hasty retreat back to the Triton.
Through the back alleys, they're chased by a small mob of bar patrons. The PCs use their acrobatics (and a few conveniently placed crates to get back to the ship ahead of the baddies. Their captain, a Volus named Datok, gives them a bunch of crap for bringing the fury of the locals down on their heads, but luckily the cargo is loaded and they can get off this rock.
The session ended there. Overall, everyone had fun. Going from a very restrictive game like L5R run by a very restrictive GM to seeming cinematic like Marvel Heroic was a bit of a system shock at first, but ey seemed to get it really well by the end of the session.
High Points: The chase sequence and the bar fight.
Low Points: It took me quite a while to make characters and figure out how their characters were involved with each other. I think this goes back to the last game we played with out old GM. He ran a very "you have limited options and can only do things for which I have prepared" game. It was rather difficult to deal with.
I'm really looking forward to next week.
-J
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