Stargrave Session #3

 Our whole group of Stargrave players got together yesterday for our February game. Since there were six of us and Stargrave can get really slow with a lot of players, I set up two 3 x 3 tables; players were randomly assigned to one table or the other. The two scenarios that were set up were Skymine and Salvage Crew. Ziggy, Wayne and Mike ended up on the Skymine table  Being engrossed in the game I was playing, I only got one picture of that setup. 

From what I understand, Zig had a really good game and Mike did well. Wayne stunk it up, quite a reverse from last time when he completely dominated.

David, Mark and I were on the Salvage Crew table, gathering loot that had been scattered in a swamp from a downed spaceship. The spaceship provided a focal point for the encounter.

That's David's heavily-revamped crew off to the left. He suffered a lot of casualties in the previous game and essentially blew it up and started over. Mark's Monkey crew is in the upper right corner; this was his first game. My group is at the bottom. I replaced a freebie Recruit with a 100 Credit Pathfinder during the break. I gave the +1 Shoot Carbine I had picked up to the Pathfinder. 

Things got really weird for David early. Wandering monsters showed up on turns 1 and 2, both in the same place, posing a real threat to David's crew right out of the gates. 

David's sniper worked on grabbing a Data Loot from the island in the stream while my Runner, Scoop, snagged a Physical Loot from under the Monkey's noses. My newly-hired Pathfinder Rufus McCoy was shot to ribbons by the Monkeys on the hill. 100 credits. Three turns. Kind of what I expected to be honest.

Scoop starts the slow Physical Loot slog back to the corner, through difficult terrain. LEMME HEAR IT FOR 1/4 SPEED! Of course a Ryakan chooses that moment to arrive in my safe corner, blocking my exit. X AE A-12 intercedes to protect the Runner. The Ryakan chomps down on the HERObot to the tune of 10 damage. Judas Priest! What utter bullshit.

By turn 5 things were just running out the drain quickly. David had been cut off from much of the battlefield by a combination of trees, smoke and a Wall of Force Mark's Captain had thrown up to slow the monsters down. The Green snakey monster had spit acid at David's First Mate earlier and caused a tremendous amount of damage which seemed to leave an impression on David. Of course the Hydra simply burrowed under the Force Wall. The defense laser on the space ship pounded both mine and Mark's crews foolish enough to approach. My Codebreaker Katie Kaboom (the pink one in the middle) was knocked out for the third game in a row! Medic Beverly Kills picked up a Physical Loot and was hoofing it towards the corner.Mark took the opportunity to use Lift to movie some of his monkey troops to intercept the getaway. I was not pleased. At the far side of the map you can see that two more monsters have arrived - another Ryakan moving towards David's crew and a big gray boar ready to block Mark's monkeys from escaping with Data Loot. 

By turn 7 I was in full retreat, trying to get away with loot and few casualties.

The boar and hyrda stalk data-carrying-monkey prey. One monkey has already been poisoned by the hydra.

As David said, "I roasted the lobster," as he makes the best out of a bad situation, snagging XP and credits anywhere he can. That thing was a "Porigota" which carry a 30 credit bounty.

Run Monkey, Run!

Fun game, that. Lots of action and craziness. The mix of special powers that Mark and David had going on made for a lot of unpredictability. I only ended up with one injury on Katie Kaboom who will start the next game at 1/2 Health. My First Mate gained a level and I located 275 credits worth of loot. Not a bad haul. I need to make a decision about keeping Scoop, the Runner. On one hand, he's free and fast, ideal for putting into risky spots. On the other hand, another Pathfinder gives be someone equally fast who's much better equipped. At 100 credits though, I'd be hesitant to put him into risky situations which currently don't faze a zero-credit Runner. Decisions...

Looking forward to the next encounter in March!