I had the opportunity to run my first UW game last night, and it was really successful.  I thought I’d post a…

I had the opportunity to run my first UW game last night, and it was really successful.  I thought I’d post a summary of the events, for those interested in how things played out.  Warning:  LONG POST

We started with only 2 players, and I ran the suggested launch scenario at the end of the book.  We had a Wrecker named Artak (Art) and a Shards of Xa aligned Pilot named Melgon (Mel).  I was a bit skeptical about a game with 2 players, but it turned out great.

SCENE 1

Mel started in the ruined cockpit of the ship they were trying to retrieve cargo from.  He saw an armed salvage team coming straight at them, looking aggressive.  Who were they?  “Nakamoto mercs, increadibly well armed with the most expensive, specialized weapons and armor that you can buy.”  What do you do?  “Tap into the ship’s point defense system to fight them off.”

Well, the power systems are down, how are you going to get the computer up?  “I’ll patch my pilot suit’s booster pack into it”  OK, that’s a Face Adversity (Interface) to power it up, then an Access move to tap in.  Partial successes lead us to successful power up, but no point defense.  The only obvious system available to him is to slam the blast doors down.  Problem?  His wrecker partner isn’t quite into the cargo hold, and the blast doors will block him out as well.

“Hey Art, get into that cargo hold NOW!”  slams blast doors button

cut to Art:

The blast doors are about to come down, but you’re not quite through the bay doors.  What do you do?  “I switch off the plasma torch and boot the door down!”  Dismantle move, rolls 7-9 so ‘it doesn’t take very long’ but it’s loud and destroys it.  Fortunately, that doesn’t matter since moments after he rolls through, the huge blast door slams shut behind him.

Art quickly finds the target crate, and he cuts it open because it would be pretty awkward to carry himself.  Inside is a metal tube (about the size of a rolled yoga mat), very carefully packaged, with digital readouts everywhere and massive warnings about shocking or jarring it, explosive symbols, etc.  Nasty, delicate stuff, whatever it is.  “Hey Mel, I’m sealed in here.  Find me a way out please!  I’ve found the package.”

cut to Mel:

Mel checks his system again, another Access move, 7-9.  “I’m opening the outer cargo doors for you…” they open, but they’re loud and power runs out after they get about 24″ open.  The team cutting their way into the ship near the cockpit splits up, and 4 armed goons run around to see what the noise was about.  “Hey Art, 4 guns heading your way.  I’ll jump outside and come around behind them, but they’ll be on you in 30 seconds.”

Cut to Art:

The wrecker gets a big steel crate half tipped over and ready to drop on the first person to enter the bay doors.  Soon enough a gun shows up, and he slams the crate on it.  Disarms the guy, but no damage done.  Attackers back off a bit to plan their entrance.  Art decides to mount his Hull Breaker explosive on the wall, and tells Mel, “15 seconds to detonation: don’t get too close!”  He grabs the Item and dives for cover (successful Face Adversity:Physique to get over his Clumsiness caused by holding the delicate thing).

Cut to Mel:

The pilot drops out of the cockpit and runs around the side of the ship.  He see the mercs about to re-enter, where they’d probably notice the bomb, so he fires off a shot to distract them long enough for the explosive to go off.  KaBOOM!  Melted mercs.  Art runs out with the Item and they high-tail it out of there, before the other mercs from inside can regroup.

SCENE 2:

Mel’s shuttle, the Kestrel, is summoned and his copilot picks them up.  They make for the Cormorant, their starship, which is in orbit above.  As they exit the atmosphere they find a huge capital ship clearing the horizon, and it’s unleashed a massive flood of suppressing blaster fire, trying to prevent the shuttle from reaching its ship.  The Cormorants shields easily deflect the blasters, but the shuttle is more fragile.  Mel takes control and pulls off a nice manouevre to reach the ship, but it’s a 7-9 on Face Adversity, and though he successfully docks, he punches a hole in the shuttle by hitting the docking bay too hard.  The contents of the shuttle start to suck out of the hole, and the Item is in danger.  Art jumps on it bodily to protect it, and has to Brace for Impact (6-) as a large space suit helmet slams into him, bruising his shoulder and giving him the “numb left arm” minor debility.

“Uh, Mel, there’s a huge power surge detected on that Destroyer.  What the hell are we gonna do?”

Mel runs for the bridge to take control of the Cormorant, and Art heads to Engineering.  “Art, get those shields up, we’re going to take a hit!”  (This was a very casual one-shot, so I’m OK with everyone vaporizing here.  I pulled NO punches, this is a Fatal blast that could destroy them utterly).  Art, however, rolls 10+ on his Shields Up, and the Cormorant takes Severe damage, wiping out their weapons systems.

Mel’s in the chair now, and he dives the Cormorant towards the planet, skimming off the atmosphere and trying to get out of the line of fire of the slower capital ship.  7-9 on his Face Adversity though, and there turns out to be unexpected damage to the lower hull, and the ionosphere is ripping plates off the ship.  “Art, can you redirect shielding to the lower hull? (basically trying to get Art to Get Involved in the piloting manouevre).

Art goes Shields Up again, also 7-9.  This turns the piloting maneouvre into a success, but the implications are that the lower and rear shield arrays are toast.  Ship sustains Major damage to shields, but is now on the other side of the planet.

“Guys we have no rear or lower shields,” says Art to his pilot and the crew.

“Crap, we’ll be blasted to hell once they come around the planet. No chance of making the jump point safely.”  A bit of frantic discussion with the crew, and finally they settle on a Wild Jump.  Against all odds… 10+!  They pop out to a point about a week from their destination, with nothing more than nausea and headaches.

The rest of the night involved mostly social encounters, got some other factions mixed in, erased some debts by letting the Epoch Trust scan the Item before returning it physically to the Shards of Xa, and actually much more.

THOUGHTS:

– the rules really encourage madcap space opera action.  We all really liked that

– I found that social situations were a little loose, and I felt like I was stretching to call for any moves other than Face Adversity:Personality.  Would appreciate others’ thoughts on social encounters in UW.

– The XP mechanic was cool (we gained 4 XP in the session)

– everyone definitely had fun!