Scarlet Sunrise, Session 1: Prison Break!

Part One: The Session

     Our heroes began their adventure on the icy prison-world of Straya, imprisoned for...some sort of crime. Idk. They probably deserved it. After a brief introduction of each PC (Shaggy painting with the ooze perpetually dripping from her, Mercy being chewed out for seducing one of the prison's robotic guards, stingray17 freakishly unbothered by the cold, and Amara knitting a scarf. Some brief futzing with the dice roller later, the PCs heard some random rumors (suggested to me as part of my prep by my lovely friend Elizabeth). Notable among these was that the Warden had, in a fit of laziness, made every combination the same: 0-4-5-1. Asking them who and how they'd smuggled in their gear, we settled on Shaggy doing the actual smuggling due to her natural stealth, while stingray and Amara used an old hidden cache from the days of the Great War to actually hide the gear until they were ready. 

    The basic plan was simple and went off largely without a hitch: cause a massive riot and escape in the chaos. The combat itself was pretty smooth, and I feel like I did an okay-ish job managing the threat pool (especially with the Game Master's Daggerheart extension automatically adding any Fear gained to my pool.) I found out early on that two of our four PCs had not taken any combat-related Domain powers, which I absolutely adored them for, but it worked out okay, each still had a cool moment; Mercy the Rogue did a cool jump-over and had the shift overseer, a Galapa named Maul, by the throat. When Mercy failed to intimidate them, Amara managed to shoot them through the eye, killing* them. Maul is totally gonna come back as a cyborg later though, motivated by vengeance and all that jazz. Like a Darth Vader type. It'll be great. 

    Running up through the prison, they ran into Greta, a local gang boss who Mercy had pissed off several times, and her henchmen. Amara and stingray used the first Tag Team move of the game, dealing a shitton of damage to Greta and spreading the love around a bit to the enforcers as well. With that done, Mercy did manage to spook off Greta.

I named each Jason Statham token after a character The Rock has played in a movie. 

    Following that, and a scene where they stopped a rebellious cell block from being sealed off and pumped full of mustard gas (because they already had the code for the door), I gave them a choice of three ships: an uncomfortable steam-belching battleship, a swift clipper, and a luxurious yacht. Three of them voted for the yacht, and they set off, taking with them a few notable crewmates among a sea of background extras:

• Rhodo, Highborne Giant/Firbolg, they/them
• Rhodo is USK nobility, and is gonna recognize stingray and use her to their advantage. We'll see how that plays out.
• Bucket, Slyborne/Ridgeborne Goblin, he/him
• Named after a friend of mine's PC from an old Stars Without Number game, Bucket is actually a native of Straya, being born and raised in a Maroon community and being arrested for "trespassing" while hunting a muffalo. Prison staff then followed their tracks and burned down his home village, filling him with a fire for revenge.  
• Sophia, Slyborne/Loreborne Human, she/her
• Sophia is from the Enlightened Palatinate of Bia, and got arrested for cheating on her entrance exams. 
• Ingrid, Loreborne fairy, she/they
• Ingrid was randomly generated during the session, and I haven't quite figured out what to do with her yet. She initially refused to join in the riot, but Shaggy came back to try and help her again.
• Ploon, Orderborne Human, he/him
• Ploon was another randomly generated one. I think I'm gonna make him a fallen Space Mari-I mean uh, Warrior of Purity. Maybe he wanted to avoid his arranged partner? Maybe he's gay? Idk.

The Stars and Wishes from Session 1

Part Two: The Prep Work

    As any bottom knows, prep work is an important part of playtime. In this case, however, I think I ended up overprepping. My three potential combats and battlemaps (and associated minis) were made, but only the first one ended up being used. Part of this was player choice, but another part was I don't like mechanical combat very much in my dragon games. Daggerheart is probably at my outer limit, and even then I'm only gonna be doing One Combat Per Session. Part of the goal going forward is to make things less of a time crunch/linear tunnel on the PCs end (which I anticipate going well). At least now I've got a few cave maps and spider tokens to use for the future. 

    Immediately developing an NPC who's antagonistic towards them with Maul is great. Idk when they're gonna come back from the dead and try to hunt them down, but I figure I'll give it like an arc or so to make it feel like time has passed. 

    My faction system (stolen from Blades in the Dark) has also ran in between sessions. Nothing super exciting there yet, except that the merc unit The Raven Guard has enlisted the services of an inquisitor from New Draconis to find out the traitor inside their ranks. Good for them good for them. 

    Right now the crew's priority is finding work and a semi-friendly port. As of writing this we don't know where that will be, but the current top contenders are the shipyards of Tok and the occupied planet of September. I put a deadline for Wednesday the 3rd of September, so I'll know by then and can try to figure out what to prep.