The Mandatory Borniko Syndicate Job

Hello, beautiful peeps! I know, it's been a beat, and posting an update on a Sunday is a bit random. I had decided that I wanted to just be on vacation last week, hence the skipped post on the 5th. My priority was spending the time with Hubby instead of squirrelling away to write this update. Hope you guys didn't miss me too terribly.

As for this week? Well, Hubby's manager had her baby this past Wednesday, which means hubby's schedule this week - and straight through the manager's maternity leave - is a bit wonky to help cover her leave. I again took the opportunity to just spend Tuesday morning with Hubby before he did a long closing shift. This blog got neglected in the process, but, ya know... priorities. Then it was just a matter of not having any consistent free time since. I mean, I've been chipping away at this update all week, but I haven't had a solid couple of hours to just sit and write. Which is why there's been such a long delay.

There might be an ongoing shift of when I post these updates as I try to figure out my own new routine to coincide with Hubby's. I'll have to get back to you on what that new updating schedule might look like. Possibly late in the day Tuesdays, perhaps Sundays since that's my shortest work day, perhaps some other day that I'm not busy with much else. Who knows? Hubby has been getting back into Magic: The Gathering, so maybe Friday nights while he's playing at the local game shop? Maybe Saturday mornings after I've had an evening to work alone on the post?

Like I said, I'll keep you updated once I've figured it out.

Along those lines, since I wanted to spend as much time with Hubby as we possibly could while on our joint vacation (and again this past Tuesday morning), I also didn't sequester myself to try to get any further work done on my writing projects. So no writing updates this go. Not that you guys are surprised about that by now, I'm sure.

We do have more Scum and Villainy to talk about, though. For instance, I finally remembered to ask Quarthix to spell out Demarcus' last name for me, and I also remembered to ask everyone for character ages. Which means I now have an almost-completed official roster for the Stardancer:

• Captain: Demarcus Recocu
• Alias: "Captain"
• Playbook: Muscle
• Species: Human
• Age: 25
• Background: Former on-call doctor for the Borniko Syndicate
• Pilot of the Slambulance
• Racing Name: "Doc"
• First Mate/Helmsman: Quinton Shrike
• Alias: "Lord"
• Playbook: Speaker
• Species: Human
• Age: 22
• Background: Member of minor noble house; family owns the Raven's Nest nightclub
• Pilot of the Dark Soliloquy
• Racing Name: "Poet"
• Crewmate (? - The players haven't figured out an official role for her yet...): tI'kæl 
• Alias: "Space Princess" (? - she hasn't confirmed this is her criminal alias yet)
• Playbook: Mystic
• Species: Memish
• Age: Age of maturity for Memish; equivalent to human age of 20
  (probably physically 200-some years old, since Memish can live to be about 1000 much like humans can live to be about 100?)
• Background: Princess and high priestess of Mem; pretending to be on a pilgrimage
• Pilot of Da Wey
• Racing Name: "Sanic"

During our last session, we also discovered Demarcus' life's goal. So I can fill this list out for you as well:

• Quinton's Life Goal: Become a famous RIP racer (at least, have "Poet" become the GOAT of the sport).
• TI'kæl's Life Goal: To observe and experience as much of the galaxy as she can manage, all while spreading the glory of The Way.
• Demarcus' Life Goal: To become an infamous criminal, but also untouchable by authorities.

The characters are all coming together as the players are slowly getting to know more about them; get more of a feel for them. Still don't really know what Quinton or Demarcus look like, other than "They fancy." So we still have that hurdle, but the age thing does help a touch with picturing them.

For anyone who is into the anime/manga One Piece, we've joked that Demarcus is "Zorro, dressed as Sanji, and trying to become Doflamingo." For those who don't know the series, Quarthix also described Demarcus simply as, “I look like a thug that dresses really nice.” So... there's that.

Now, we may only be up to the 3rd gaming session here in my recaps, but, due to scheduling conflicts and players fighting migraines and the like, we haven't had a session since Aug 30 anyway. Which means session 4 has yet to actually happen (we're hoping to finally play again tomorrow...). That also means we're not too far behind here in my blog recaps compared to where the group is in the actual game. So, without further ado, let's get into Session 3 of SaV:

Credit to the Scum and Villainy art team:
Brett Barkley, Tomasso Renieri, Juan Ocha, Michaela DeSacco, and Tazio Bettin

When last we saw the crew, poor minor noble Mevakor Nagan was arrested for drug possession, possible drug trafficking/dealing, and suspicion of Vos crystal smuggling. All things the Stardancer crew actually does/did, but they were happy to let poor Mev take the fall. (Is it weird that Mev was only used in 2 sessions, but since they were over the course of 2 months, it feels like we've been with him forever? And so it's weird to not have him with the crew for Session 3?)

Thankfully, the 51st Legion didn't catch the crew smuggling the wanted former-Hegemony-weapons-specialist Ishi. Mainly because Ishi was disguised to be Demarcus' "nephew" Timmy, and "Timmy" was isolated in an interrogation room, waiting for his "uncle's" interrogation to conclude. The crew then tidied the Stardancer back up (after the 51st Legion's ransacking of the ship) as they headed off to the Jumpgate to travel from the Holt star system to the Rin star system. Their main tasks in Rin: (1) find a way to broadcast an announcement the Echo Wave Riders (EWR) gave to the Borniko Syndicate, and (2) get Ishi safely to the Maelstrom Pirates and their hideout The Cove.

The EWR, and therefore the Bornikos, gave the Stardancer crew only two weeks to figure out how to hack either the Hegemony News Network or the galaxy-wide communications device the ansible in order to broadcast their announcement. If the crew didn't hit their deadline, the EWR and Borniko would go from allies to enemies, and the Borniko Syndicate would be out for blood against the crew for screwing up the relationship between the factions in the first place.

To recap further: The Echo Wave Riders were good allies with the Borniko Syndicate. They also build a large portion of their faction's identity off of the desire and ability to be the first to try the newest travel technology. The Echo Wave Riders had been hearing about a new land transport coming out, and were lined up to be the first to try them. However, through his channels at the Starsmiths Guild, Quinton negotiated for the Stardancer crew to get the land transports under the guise of testing them out for the Guild. Therefore, Quinton ended up sniping these transports from the EWR. We still haven't figured out if this was intentional sniping. Either way, this royally pissed off the EWR (for in-game mechanics, this gaves the crew a -2 rep with the Echo Wave Riders). Unfortunately, none of the Stardancer crew knew that the EWR were allies of the Borniko, who are their main criminal ally.

Figuring out that the crew that sniped the transports from them were affiliated with the Syndicate, the EWR started breathing down their ally's necks and threatening to end the partnership. In an attempt to placate the EWR, the Borniko offered to broadcast their race announcement that they were struggling to promote. That's when the EWR gave the Syndicate a hard deadline to get it broadcast. Then the Borniko turned around and ordered the Stardancer crew to get the announcement out by that deadline in order to smooth over the issues they caused, "Or else." The crew is just lucky that the EWR never figured out that the RIP racing team that has been harassing their drivers were also the Stardancer crew.

So anyway, the crew has this hard deadline for this job, and they were less than a fortnight away from hitting it. Alternatively, Ishi seemed contented to be on the Stardancer (as long as his escorts/smugglers stopped doing stupid things that might get him found out), so it was easy to decide to work on the broadcast job first. To make things easier, both the HNN and ansible HQs are housed on Quinton's "homeworld" of Warren.

Their first problem, however, came when they simply tried to travel from one star system to the next. The Holt-Rin Jumpgate is notoriously unstable. Well, it's MOSTLY stable, but it also is known to glitch. After talking to Hubby on how to handle this issue that's canon to the game lore, we came up with a chart for me to roll on to see if traveling through the Gate is successful. Sad to say for the Stardancer crew, but the gate wasn't stable that day.

The canon lore of the game comments about "naturally occurring" hyperspace lanes that shorten in-system travel between planets. These lanes are created by paths of Way energy flowing in the blackness of space. I think of these hyperspace lanes kind of like how ocean currents were shown in the movie Finding Nemo.

Much like how Finding Nemo shows the main ocean currents, I figured hyperspace lanes are set up like highways that you can merge onto at any point, travel quickly on, and then exit out of. Also, like a water current in the ocean, the in-system hyperspace lanes are sections of space where The Way quickly travels. Therefore, similar to animals using currents to move faster between points in the ocean(s), ships (and anything else traveling through the vacuum of space) can use these Way paths (the hyperspace lanes) to move faster between points of space. This is how interplanetary travel only takes about a day (or two, or three, depending on where each planet is in their orbit).

The Jumpgates, on the other hand, I viewed as a bit more complicated since they create artifical paths. While traveling through a hyperspace lane may be similar to a boat finding a current, or a car hitting the nitrous-oxide boost, going through an inter-star-system Jumpgate is more like being catapulted into near-lightspeed travel. Basically, this means you HAVE to use the Jumpgates to get into these artifical hyperspace lanes. First of all, the amount of Way force in these "lanes" between gates makes an almost tube-like "tunnel" for the ships to travel through. So it's near-impossible to even muscle into these lanes. Secondly, with ships traveling through the gates at near-lightspeed, and no way to clearly see the ships from outside the lane, even if a ship could muscle their way onto the Jumpgate path, there's no telling how much space they truly have. There's a high probability that they may inadvertently re-enact the Holdo Maneuver from Star Wars: The Last Jedi (yes, I know it's a controversial bit of the movie, but just go with me here).

Probably best to avoid getting rammed by a ship going near-lightspeed....

Anyway, I said something about the Holt-Rin Jumpgate not being stable and glitching? Well, we also figured the Jumpgates would work similar to how Astral Gates work in Cowboy Bebop.

Namely, that the Gates can be opened and closed. As of right now, I don't have the Jumpgates charging tolls, but I have been thinking about adding that to the on-going story. The Hegemony could start charging tolls, at least on the three Gates in the Rin system: the Rin-Holt Gate, the Rin-Iota Gate, and the Rin-Ecliptis Gate (which leads to the Core, where the Hegemon lives). Eventually, this could also bleed to the Iota-Brekk Gate and the currently unopened Holt-Hantu Gate. So, that's a simple (and possibly temporary) difference between the SaV Jumpgates and the Cowboy Bebop Astral Gates: no tolls. The other difference is that turning off the Gate doesn't permalock a ship into hyperdrive like it does in Cowboy Bebop (basically trapping the ship and its passengers in a separate hyperspeed dimension). Instead, the way I imagined the Jumpgates working in Scum and Villainy is a bit more complicated (less complicated???).

I saw turning on a Gate as a way of completing an electrical circuit, literally turning the pathway on. Once the gates are turned on, there's this "current" that flows between them, and that "creates" this Jumpgate tunnel, similar to how hyperspace lanes look between Astral Gates in Cowboy Bebop. While The Way makes these natural paths between planets within a star system, these Gates artificially manipulate The Way to create paths between star systems. That being said, though, I do imagine that there ARE natural Way hyperspace lanes even between star systems, they're just few and far between.

Point being, if a Gate is turned off while ships are passing through them, the Gate's manipulation of The Way vanishes, and the ships instantly drop out of near-lightspeed. They're also kind of "tossed" or "dropped" out of the tunnel created between the Gates, which is lucky, because it also clears the way for the next ship once the Gates are turned back on. I kind of pictured it as if an astronaut is drifting from one door to another, but before they can reach the other door, the artificial gravity is turned on, and the astronaut instead drops to the floor.

I also pictured one Gate in each star system for both directions of traffic. So, to avoid those Holdo Maneuver collisions, the Gates function like a one-lane bridge. Each Gate will either glow green for clear passage, or red for "occupied", or won't glow at all if they're turned off. Ships generally approach Gates from the side, to make sure there's clear passage for any ship that might be exiting. Hegemonic workers then direct traffic, waving ships in and radioing between the Gates via ansible. They tend to alternate between their Gate being the entrance and then the exit.

For instance, the Holt-Rin/Rin-Holt Gate could be used to send a ship from the Holt star system to Rin, and then a ship from the Rin star system to Holt, and then back to a ship from Holt to Rin, etc. If there are no ships waiting, the worker could radio to the other star system, so that the other worker knows they can keep flagging ships into the gate without first waiting for a ship to exit it. If a worker is given the go-ahead to not wait for an exiting ship before sending the next one in through their gate, they tend to push ships through every ten minutes or so (enough time for the previous ship to exit and get out of the way of the one following them. Also enough time for the other worker to radio that they finally have someone waiting).

Given how long a one-way Jump can be, and that a ship has to wait for both the ship in front of them to make the trip, and a ship from the other side to also make the trip, most crews hope to stumble upon one of these "One-Way Chutes".

Generated by Bitmoji
Cropped by LycoRogue

Whew! That was a LOT, just so I could explain one little blip in the adventures of the Stardancer Crew. Oh well. Welcome to me and world building.

So, as I'm sure you've all guessed by now, the Stardancer's trip through the Holt Gate towards the Rin star system didn't go according to plan. They were expecting the trip to last about 30min (Which, given they're going at NEAR lightspeed, is absurdly too short. I mean, it takes sunlight about 45 minutes to reach Jupiter. But just go with it...). Instead, the Holt-Rin Jump lasted only 15min. Then the Stardancer was abruptly thrown out of near-lightspeed. Everything on their newly tidied up ship lurched forward with momentum, and was also thrown against the ceiling as the ship literally dropped out of the Jumpgate tunnel.

I had previously decided that the trip from Holt to Rin, using normal hyperspeed and hopping between the naturally occurring hyperspace lanes, typically takes 14 to 20 days to travel (again, ridiculously too short, but ignore that). Based on how far into the Jump they got before getting rudely thrown out of it, they were still about 7 or 8 days from the Rin star system. Longer, if they couldn't find the hyperspace lanes. The Maelstrom Pirates, along with independent pirate ships, also patrolled the space between Rin and Holt, specifically looking for ships kicked out of the Jumps. This wasn't a situation the Stardancer crew wanted to be in, especially with the tight deadline they had. (Although, depending on how they rolled to get out of it, I did have a contingency that it would be a Maelstrom Pirate ship that would find them, and they could at least get the Ishi hand-off out of the way.)

The crew debated drifting back to where the Jumpgate tunnel should be, and ride the current once the Gate is fixed. However, there were a few complications there: (1) if they weren't accurate as to where the lane was, and the forcefield-like "walls" of the tunnel ended up cutting through part of their ship, the Stardancer would easily be torn apart. (2) Since they'd be jumping into the lane mid-way, the Gates may not recognize that the tunnel is occupied, and another ship could be flagged to go through. If that ship was sent from the Rin side, we're back to that Holdo Maneuver scenario. (3) If they weren't fast enough at getting back into the lane, they could collide with that "wall" around the tunnel, or again fall into that first scenario of the "wall" cutting through their ship.

They quickly caved and decided to just travel with normal hyperspace, and hope they can make the journey safely. Good thing for them that Hubby was playing with loaded dice or something, because nearly every time he rolled he got a 6: critical success. Narratively, Quinton, being from the Rin system, knew where most of the naturally occurring hyperspace lanes were, and hit each of them near-perfectly.

The Stardancer hit the outer orbit of the Rin system with six days to spare before reaching their deadline to broadcast the Echo Wave Riders' message.

During the trip to Rin, since he wasn't the one driving, Demarcus tried to use the time to bond with Ishi a bit more. Now that he knew the impish Deilku was the main weapons designer, maker, and seller for the Hegemony, Demarcus wanted Ishi to join the crew. While the bonding worked so far as Ishi tolerates Demarcus the most out of the crew, and he minded less that he has had a much longer stay with his smugglers than anticipated, there was still no way Ishi was going to join the crew. He did offer the crew a discount on his weapons, however. So there's that.

Now in the Rin system, the crew spent another 2 days travelling across the system to Warren. So, the reason I had 'homeplanet' in quotes before is because Warren is actually a moon. The planet it orbits, Aleph, isn't inhabitable, but it does have a lot of valuable minerals that the Hegemony mines to the point of nearly hollowing out the planet. Because of this profitable mining venture, the moon of Warren became a major hub within the Rin system. As the rulebook describes it:

Warren is one of the moons of Aleph and the home to an ecumenopolis—a city spanning the entire surface of the moon. It’s the capitol for the system, and the system Governor Ritam al’Malklaith makes his residence here. On Warren, you can find anything you need—for a price. Its high-rises are full of legitimate business dealings, and its streets far less so.

Warren is a wretched hive of villainy, yet also the Hegemonic seat of power in the system.

(Pg 301 in SaV Rulebook)

I see it kind of like Night City in Cyberpunk 2077.

Anyway, with only four days left to try to figure out how to broadcast the EWR announcement, the crew decided their best plan of attack would be with Vorex: "The most successful information broker to ever live. She can access any terminal in the sector—though no one can explain how." (rulebook pg 336) It was fairly well known around Warren that Vorex managed to hijack one of the HNN satellites orbiting the ecumenopolis. Relying on his charisma, Quinton suggested going to the hijacked satellite and try to get Vorex to broadcast the announcement for them. If that didn't work, Quinton could try hacking into the satellite himself to broadcast the announcement. If THAT didn't work, the crew could just threaten to blow up the satellite, and hope Vorex valued her stolen property enough to cave instead of allowing the satellite to be destroyed. Both tI'kæl and Demarcus were shocked with this sudden bit of aggression from Quinton, but Demarcus was 100% behind it.

Cloaking the ship, Quinton maneuvered the Stardancer far enough away from the 51st Legion ship patrolling around the commandeered HNN satellite to remain unseen. Undetected (at least, at the time), the Stardancer docked by the satellite, which also served as a mini space station. There was an access hatch along the side, and the interior of the satellite was JUUUUUUUUUST barely large enough for all three crewmates to fit inside without elbowing each other too much.

Unsure how to actually get Vorex's attention, Quinton hacked into the individual satellite's system. He wasn't able to access the full Hegemony News Network, but he could at least play around with that specific satellite a little bit. Quinton started messing around some more to try to get to the HNN feed, but was interrupted by Vorex's assistant AI. I described the AI as a computer screen that descended via thick cable from the ceiling. It had the basic "neon-green simple pixel face on a black screen" used in a lot of sci-fi AIs. Failing to create Vorex's assistant AI before the session, I relied on the rulebook entry (pg 336):

TURF: An automated HNN satellite orbiting Warren (HQ).
NPCS: Vorex (wizard-class hacker, stressed, careful, self-modified). A-0M (maintenance Urbot, cheerful, non-verbal). Tock (security Urbot, protective, staticky, well armed).

Okay, so maybe I took some liberties there. If this satellite was supposed to be Vorex's HQ, shouldn't it be a large enough space station/satellite for her to live there? But, then it should be fairly easy for the Legion to either kill her by blowing up the satellite, or bust in to arrest her and take back control. Didn't seem to make sense that she'd actually STAY at the satellite. Hense just the small access area, no Vorex the hacker, and no Tock the security Urbot. This left me with the cheerful maintenance Urbot A-0M. I decided this was clearly the AI the crew just encountered. Did not notice the "non-verbal" part, though, so I gave A-0M a chipper little voice as he greeted the three invaders of the satellite. (I also misread the zero in the NPC's name as a capital O. So his name is now pronounced "Ay-Ohm". LOOOOTS of liberties taken with the Vorex entry....)

The confused A-0M greeted Quinton - since he was the one accessing the terminal - and complemented "Vorex" on her great disguise (the AI couldn't fathom anyone but his boss managing to use the satellite). Quinton ran with the misconception and asked A-0M to broadcast the Echo Wave Riders' message. A-0M agreed, once "Vorex" gave the security verification code. Quinton started guessing what the code is. He wasn't even close, but that did send a security alert to Vorex.

A-0M's green-pixeled face disappeared, and instead a grainy and purposefully poorly-lit video call from Vorex herself filled the screen. She, much like Quinton, had a voice modulator active as she demanded to know who the three people in her satellite were, and what they wanted. Quinton quickly explained the situation and assured Vorex that they didn't want to be there any more than she wanted them there. She threatened to boot them out of the system, but Quinton managed to smooth-talk her to the point where she was willing to at least see the video they were supposed to broadcast.

A heavy sigh and a deep groan later, Vorex commented about how frivolous the announcement was, and how it wasn't worth her utilizing her satellite to hack into the HNN broadcast. Quinton and Demarcus both agreed, but also argued back that she was spending more time arguing with them than it would take to just air the video. That wasn't really the point, but when Quinton jumped to threatening Vorex and her satellite, she relented (Hubby had again rolled a 6, otherwise I would have had her majorly push back).

She confirmed with A-0M that he had been recording the three intruders the whole time. She then heaved another sigh before airing the asinine video from the Echo Wave Riders. The crew now contented, they agreed to leave. Vorex yelled after them that she better not catch them messing with any of her work ever again.

Back on the ship, the crew turned on the broadcast to see what the EWR even wanted to announce (Vorex saw it before any of them even bothered to watch it). It was a cheesy video - filled with fireworks, air horns, and a gang of the EWR with their favorite land transports - announcing a system-wide race through Brekk as a way to determine who truly is the greatest pilot within the Procyon Sector. The EWR warned that the buy-in for the race won't be cheap, and only those the EWR deemed "worthy" would even get an invitation to the race. However, the payout and the clout of winning the race will be well worth it. The video then concluded by letting pilots know they had a month to prove their worth. If they managed it, the Echo Wave Riders would extend an invite to the Brekk system race. The video closed out with the crowd of EWR in the video barking out their faction's mantra like they were soldiers responding to their drill sergeant: "speed and skill are the only truths."

Accurately pegging the Echo Wave Riders as "a gang of douches", and confirming that Vorex held up her end of broadcasting the video for them, the crew dislodged the Stardancer from the satellite and descended to Warren. (Quinton was in a particularly bad mood that day, and so he still wanted to blow up the satellite, but the other two managed to talk him down from it.)

The Stardancer was still cloaked, but the patrolling 51st Legion ship did zip back to the satellite upon seeing the broken-into broadcast, and they caught the Stardancer leaving the satellite. Thankfully, the Legionnaires got there too late to get a good enough look at the ship. Also, the Stardancer doesn't have any exterior add-ons that the Legion could use to really distinguish them anyway. The best description the 51st Legion has is "Scarab-class Freighter with factory-paint job (basically a base coat)."

Docked on Warren, the crew scrambled to find out how much the 51st Legion knew. Seeing the pathetic BOLO for them, they decided now was the best time to get a paint job. Won't throw the Legion off completely since they'll still be on the lookout for a Scarab, and they'll know that the one they saw could have gotten a paint job. However, now the Legion would have to file the Stardancer with all of the other Scarabs in the sector since they couldn't be singled out as having "factory paint" still on their Scarab-class freighter. Also, now the crew had more plausible deniability.

Aaaaaaand since the players haven't been able to see my mock-up of the Stardancer with its new paint job, and I want them to be the first ones to see it, I'm going to stop here. This blog is already late, and it's already long, thanks to me trying to describe how the hyperspace lanes and Jumpgate paths work.

I'll save the casual roleplaying the group did, as well as their RIP race for next recap.

I will state though, that I did warn the players out-of-character that Vorex has already created in-depth dossiers on both tI'kæl and Demarcus. Due to Quinton being careful with his disguises and voice mods, and always making sure that everyone uses the codenames, Vorex is still working on his dossier. She is fairly certain that the Stardancer crew is the RIP Racing team Chaos Theory, and therefore "Lord" and "Poet" could possibly be the same person, but she doesn't have enough proof to be certain. Quinton's basically Vorex's Yard Board for right now.

Image from Paddington 2 (2017)

Excuse the pun, but this is going to be a fun thread to pull on for future storylines.

Until next time...

Scum and Villainy rule book cover designed by art team:
Brett Barkley, Tomasso Renieri, Juan Ocha,
Michaela DeSacco, and Tazio Bettin
(Cheesy Batman-series-joke edits by LycoRogue)

And Thus the Tale of the Stardancer Crew Begins

Well, looks like my prediction that I would have to skip last week's post because of work proved correct. That's a bummer, because I started working on this post last Monday, in hopes that I'd get the post written before bed, edited before/during work, and published at some point last Tuesday. The fact that I missed that post update despite actually putting in the effort to get it done on time hurts a bit, especially after the weekend of the 13th. But I'll get to that in a minute.

Generated by Bitmoji

I said last update that I still had a large list of things I didn't get around to writing about before the post got overwhelming. I also said I had intended on continuing with that list this post.

Yeah.... I decided against that.

Most of it was centered on my writing (or... lack thereof, if I'm honest). I was going to talk about Plagg Appreciation Day on Friday the 13th, the first one since November. I was then going to talk about how - minus the plot points I'm coming up with for Scum and Villainy - I haven't written anything in 3 months. Significantly fewer months than when I was in a dry spell leading into the last Plagg Appreciation Day, but still a painfully long time. That would have lead me to talk about the last story I did write, how popular it seems to be, and how that popularity appears to be largely due to MostLovedGirl linking to my story at the end of her story (which had inspired my story in the first place).

I'm still not entirely sure how to take those stats, though. Do I see it as proof that I am a good writer, and I'm only hidden in obscurity because there's such a large flood of stories that people just don't find my work in the first place? Probably. I'm sure all of you fine folks are sitting there screaming at your respective screens that is exactly the case.

Despite that, though, of course my mind made me equally wonder if the only reason the story gets the love it does is because MLG is promoting it, and because it's mostly based on her story. So people only really like it because it's her story still... just... zoomed in for a scene she didn't get into. A little less than a quarter of readers who have left kudos on both Could Your Paradise Also Be Your Hell? and Remember That Time When... (so, the best indication I have that they are readers coming from MLG's story) also left me kudos on my other stories. The number shrinks more if you take out those usernames I recognize as already being repeat readers of mine, and further still once you remove those who only left kudos on one other story other than CYPABYH. Even among those readers that left kudos only on my story, about 32% had either went on to leave kudos on at least one other story, or they were already readers of mine that already had.

Take the group as a whole, and just over a quarter of them - 26% - left me kudos on at least one other story of mine, most of those, though, were usernames I recognized as already had left me those kudos before I published CYPABYH.

In other words, my story didn't seem to get many people to go, "ooo. I have to check out more of her work!" So, if I'm honest, larger than a small part of me still believes that CYPABYH's popularity is very much because of the tie to MLG's story, and not because of its own merit.

I guess I'm stuck in this mindset because, with the rare exception (like, one or two people), no one seems to like my stories enough to suggest them to anyone else in the fandom. (Sorry, that sounds salty to my amazing readers. I promise I'm not hating on any of you or trying to guilt trip you into promoting my work for me. This is a "me" problem. I promise.) See, there are other stories that grab readers more intensely than mine seem to, and so whenever there's those "suggested reads" lists, there's a variety of other stories that pop up, but never mine. My stories - or even just me as an author - never seem to come to mind when someone is creating their "OMG you HAVE to read this story/author's works! It's/they're amazing!" list.

Similarly, I've had friends comment about reviews they've received, or I've seen these types of reviews myself on fanfics I enjoy, in which reviewers remark on how much the story personally affected them. The story saved them when they were in a terrible depression, or it helped them through a rough time in their life, or it's one of the most authentic historical stories they've read, or the story depicts mental health the most realistic, or the concept is the most unique plot, or an update was the greatest unintentional birthday gift they could receive. My stories don't get reviews like those.

People seem to enjoy my work well enough, and I do get the loveliest comments on them. Again, I don't mean to shade any of my readers or the love they HAVE showered on me. It means the world to me, and I routinely reread them to remind myself that my work is indeed enjoyed. I just don't know if any of my stories STICK with my readers. If my stories differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack enough. If I have readers who will reread my stories over and over and over again. If my stories have any sort of staying power.

I've tried backtracking this meme, but I can't find the original post.
If anyone knows where this originated, please let me know.

Yes, I know, I know. I need to remember this meme, keep working hard, and have faith. Don't compare myself to others. Maybe my time to pop just hasn't happened yet. I just need to keep waiting. The hot oil might feel rough, and I may wonder if I'll always stay a shelled kernel, but I have to trust.

It's hard though. Despite reminding myself that perhaps I just haven't "popped" yet, I still wonder if I ever will. Am I destined to be one of those unpopped kernels left at the bottom of the bowl/bag? Will I EVER be able to hold my own - no promotions from an author of a well-loved fanfic - like so many other fanfic writers? Let alone if/when I eventually publish professionally? If I can't build a platform with free stories, how can I be sure that I'll get it once people have to pay for them?

I'm going on a bit of a spiral here - one that missing a blog post update, even when I prepared to have it done ahead of time, doesn't help - which is actually one of the main reasons I decided to scrap the rest of that bulleted list from two weeks ago.

Especially since I "failed" on Friday 13, so talking about my writing right now probably isn't the best idea.

Yes, I know that I'm the only one to look at not posting a new story on the 13th as a failure since there was no true obligation, and readers will appreciate any writing I post, once I do. However, I couldn't help but fall into a funk as the weekend came and went, and there was no new Plagg-centric story for Plagg Appreciation Day.

I started this little fandom tradition 2 years ago, and, until this month, I've hit all 4 Friday 13's since 2019. It's not like people follow me enough for this to ever be an actual fandom event like MariChat May or Love Square Fluff Week or Lukanette June, etc. Still, it would be fun if people did start joining in. And yet the creator of the event can't hit her own deadline of getting a Plagg-themed story done by Friday the 13th? Especially when she had 9 months to plan?

It hurt, to be honest. It still hurts. I know that no one else is mad or disappointed with me missing this deadline, but I'm just super angry with myself and my clogged up inspiration. Especially when I DID think of something, but I just couldn't figure out how to execute it.

Four false starts. FOUR. Within the span of about 72hrs. I started the story four different times; each time getting about a page or page-and-a-half in before realizing it either won't go anywhere or won't involve Plagg nearly as much as I was aiming for. (Yes, they are all saved in case I wanted to use them as jumping off points for other stories later.)

I just couldn't figure it out, and I still can't. I tried scrapping the whole idea I had come up with, since I clearly couldn't figure out how to execute it, but I couldn't think of anything else, even after spending hours looking up writing prompts.

Which is why I tend to not ask for writing prompts, or participate in many fan events like ship weeks. Prompts rarely work at actually inspiring me for a story. I can look at the prompt and go, "huh, that's a neat idea", but it's so painfully rare that they ever actually inspire a story.

So... uh... yeah. That was my week: try to come up with a Plagg-centric story for Friday 13, fail, spend a day flipping through prompts to try to come up with an alternate idea, fail again, spend the weekend depressed because of my "failure." Followed by this past week: try to recover from the weekend by working on this post so it can still go up on Tuesday, fail, figure I can work on it throughout the day Tuesday and just post it late, fail, become mentally exhausted from working every day for 9 days straight, slowly chip away at this post, ACTUALLY publish on my first day off since the 14th, feel a sigh of relief.

Oh, and also Hubby bought me a gift the weekend of the 13th to try to help cheer me up during my funk. Bless this glorious man and his huge heart.

My "cheer [LycoRogue] up" gift from Hubby. ❤
OK ORCHESTRA by AJR

Which brings us to right now, and why I'm switching gears again. I'm trying to put the Plagg Appreciation Day debacle behind me (although, not seeing a new story published in 2020 for that collection will always haunt me), and instead talk about the story I HAVE been able to build. Or, rather, the one I've built a foundation for as others co-wrote the main body of it.

We're moving into fun and happy territory, because it's Scum and Villainy story time!

Last Monday Hubby had to work a closing shift. Normally, we would be able to run a session without a player present, and come up with an excuse as to why their character wasn't involved in that job. That's one of the great things about the Forged in the Dark games. That way you don't have to worry about always having everyone available. Problem is, due to timing, the crew is technically still in the middle of a job, so it would be weird to have Hubby's character Quinton randomly vanish. Also, Hubby got off of work at 9:30pm (21:30), and that is normally smack dab in the middle of our session. It would be disrupting to pause the game so I could pick him up, and then for Quinton to randomly pop in for the remainder of the job (or Hubby to continue to miss out on the session despite now being home).

It just made sense to skip game again, but that also means... *drum roll* I still only have two sessions to tell you beautiful peeps about instead of three! Sadly, even THAT is a lot to tell in an already lengthy post (we did a LOT more than I gave our group credit). So this is going to have to be a multi-parter series. I have a head start already for part 2, plus I'm FINALLY getting back to my usual work schedule. I'm hoping both will help me hit my deadline next week. In the meantime though, we've got that first session to catch you up on.

Buckle up, peeps, because shenanigans ensued almost right out of the gate.

Credit to the Scum and Villainy art team:
Brett Barkley, Tomasso Renieri, Juan Ocha, Michaela DeSacco, and Tazio Bettin

So, quick refresher:

The crew consists of Demarcus (I forgot to have Quarthix spell his last name out for me so I could read his handwriting), who was a mob doctor for the Borniko Syndicate. The players decided that Demarcus already had ownership of the Stardancer when he met up with his crewmates (by way of the Syndicate strongly suggesting he go with them). Despite Demarcus owning the ship, the de facto leader of the crew is Quinton Shrike, a member of a minor noble house. Quinton has the expensive habit of racing in the RIP races: high-octane hovercraft races at the speed of sound. Quinton was invited into the official RIP League, but could only do so with a team. Quinton met up with fellow RIP racer tI'kæl, a Memish princess and high priestess who is pretending she's on a religious pilgrimage so she could experience the rest of the galactic sector. During that meet-up, Quinton asked tI'kæl if she wanted to form a RIP team with him. She gladly agreed, but neither of them had the funds to do so. That's where Demarcus and the Borniko Syndicate come in. Demarcus is charged to show Quinton and tI'kæl the criminal ropes, as it were. The trio now use their services as smugglers to fund their RIP League team.

As the official game starts, the crew has picked up a few jobs offered by their reclusive info broker Magnilda "Maggie" Sanaas. One such job is to meet up with her contact Mino "Quirk" Zer on the crystal planet of Vos (nicknamed "Glimmer," similar to how we've nicknamed Mars "The Red Planet"). The crew are to smuggle some of the crystals off of Vos and deliver them to the Turner Society, who use these valuable crystals as a key component for their drugs (called Haze). Problem is, these crystals are highly valued by the Hegemony, and so Vos is heavily guarded and monitored to prevent any crystal theft.

The other job Maggie had for them was an escort mission. Her friend Ishi is a Xeno (re: non-human; alien) weapons dealer and designer who is in hiding on the night side of the tidal-locked planet of Sonhandra. Ishi has allies within the Maelstrom Pirates, who have a secret haven called The Cove, which is hidden within the in-system nebula the Ashtari Cloud. The Cloud causes standard navigation equipment to act up, making it nigh impossible to navigate within the Cloud without specific equipment the Maelstrom Pirates invented. Hoping this is the safest place to hide while on the lam, Ishi needs an escort to The Cove.

Since Vos and Sonhandra are in the same star system - Holt - and this is the system the crew wanted to start in, they figured it would be fairly easy to do both jobs at the same time. One of the Turner Society's three main headquarters happens to be in the Sonhandra capital of Ugar, and Maggie told the crew that Ishi was hidden just over a kilometer outside of Ugar. Easy peasy. They would pick up the crystals from Quirk on Vos, then head over to Sonhandra to drop them off with the Turner Society before picking up Ishi and heading to the neighboring Rin star system to drop Ishi off in The Cove.

The crew was able to make their way easily enough through Customs on the space station orbiting Vos and took a shuttle down to the crystal planet. Once there, they followed Maggie's instructions in order to meet up with Quirk. After proving they were the crew sent by Maggie for the Turner Society, Quirk handed over the crystals in a container roughly the same size and shape of an Igloo-brand 4qt mini cooler.

The actual case would look more futuristic,
but you get the basic size and function idea here.

Now the crew needed to figure out how to smuggle this container through Customs. They decided to try to find a "fellow tourist" to turn into their patsy. They figured they could stash some illicit drugs on the patsy, and while the 51st Legion was busy detaining the patsy, the crew could sneak through Customs with the box. Quinton also thought to line the top of the crystals with one of his fancy scarves and pile cheap but "suuuper pretty" souvenir crystals on top of the scarf. He hoped that if Customs still tried checking the box while the patsy was being arrested that they'd see the souvenir crystals, get distracted by the commotion (hoping the patsy would put up a big stink about how the drugs didn't belong to them), and hurry Quinton along. The other two would then make sure they didn't have anything illegal on them so they could quickly pass through Customs, and then off they would go.

Quinton purposefully picked the flashiest but cheap crystals he could find. "The more I look like the store keepers swindled me, the better. I want Customs to think I'm some rich idiot." Meanwhile, Demarcus and tI'kæl scouted for their fall guy. Soon enough, they found a man decked out in an overpriced get-up stylized to look like authentic Vosian garb while still horribly missing the mark.

Basically, he looked like a tourist walking through Texas while dressed like Lil Nas X from his "Old Town Road" music video.

Hint: Texans (typically) don't dress like this

This guy was clearly an oblivious elitist, and he was loudly gloating about all the pretty crystals he just bought. While Quinton wanted to LOOK like a guy who would spend 3 Cred (about $30,000) on souvenir crystals, this guy clearly was gullible enough to ACTUALLY spend 3 Cred on this pile of crystals. The elitist was flanked by two hulking bodyguards, but they clearly cared the bare minimum required to be paid: is their boss alive and unharmed physically? Good enough. They didn't care if he was taken advantage of, as long as he had enough money left to keep paying them.

It kept a little schmoozing, but tI'kæl used her status as a Memish princess to get close to the guy and strike up a conversation with him. She talked to him about the beauty of Yuura, the frozen moon of Mem, and convinced him that he just HAD to go check it out. A bit more bullshitting, and tI'kæl convinced the patsy - Mevakor Nagan - that he HAD to see Yuura while it is at its peak in just two days (Mem is also in the Holt star system). Since she's Memish, she could escort him there to show it off.

While tI'kæl was schmoozing Mevakor (whom she nicknamed "Mev"), and convincing him that he desperately wants to leave his original travel plans on Vos and go to Mem within two days, Demarcus and Quinton managed to bump both bodyguards and spill Mev's two duffel bags' worth of crystals. The bodyguards manhandled Demarcus a bit to make sure the two guys weren't threats before Demarcus convinced the guards that the crew was harmless. As Demarcus talked his way out of the bumping, Quinton helped the other guard pick up his master's crystals, and slipped the hidden drugs in to the bags.

Everything in place, they headed to Customs. Quinton lined up to be the first through Customs, that way if things go awry, tI'kæl and Demarcus could drop their drugs in front of Mevakor's guards to draw attention to them and the drugs hidden within their bags. Luckily, Quinton was oozing charisma (and fake naiveté). He annoyed the Customs agent right out the gate by flashing his Starsmiths Guild badge, because that simple move kinda-sorta warned the agent that, as a Guild member, he's fairly untouchable. Quinton then went extremely over-the-top with his excitement over the crystals he just bought from the tourist market, even offering to pick some of the crystals out of the box to show off how pretty they were. The agent did note that the scarf was hiding something below it, but was already exasperated enough by Quinton that he just waved him through, assuming it was more worthless crystals and the scarf was just woven through multiple layers to (needlessly) protect them.

No longer needing a patsy, the crew gladly brought Mevakor and his bodyguards along to use as potential future fall guys, should someone stop their ship prior to delivering the crystals to the Turner Society. TI'kæl even offered to show off her carving ritual to Mev while on their way to Mem - with a quick pitstop to refuel on Sonhandra, of course. Problem was, tI'kæl got so attached to Mevakor, that she became a touch loose-lipped, and let it slip that they were professional smugglers. She didn't let Mev know WHAT they were currently smuggling, but didn't even consider secrecy at the time, especially because nearly everything she told Mev seemed so new and exciting for him. Giddy about being on a real life smugglers' ship (no one in his Bridge Club would ever believe he actually rode with criminals!!!!), he began wandering the ship. He didn't find the crystals, but he did find the trio's tank-sized RIP Machines (the vehicles they race) in the hangar.

Upon arriving in Ugar on Sonhandra, Mev and his two bodyguards broke off to hit up the city's famous auction house while the crew did whatever "maintenance" they needed. That was when the trio headed towards Wildside, a society house on Sonhandra that the Turner Society runs as a secret drug den. Upon arriving, they were quickly blocked by the bouncers there. The crew didn't resemble their typical clientele (although Demarcus always dresses to the nines; Quinton is a minor noble, dressed "fancy"; and tI'kæl is a literal princess). Quinton demanded they speak to a higher-up, and one of the bouncers went to fetch someone. Meanwhile, the crew briefly discussed the possibility of selling the crystals to jeweler Yola Sprekk. She would easily match the Turner Society's price for the crystals. Demarcus quickly shut the idea down though. The Turner Society was one of the largest drug cartels in the sector, and, as a drug connoisseur himself, Demarcus didn't want to piss off the Society by selling their crystals to someone else (he didn't want to be cut off when instead he could maybe win favor and possibly some discounted/free drugs).

While the crew was waiting to be let in, a couple of waifs were wandering the street and pickpocketing others in the crowd. The crew spotted this fairly easily, and Demarcus tried to deter the kids by pulling out his gun. While intimidated enough to avoid the trio, the waifs still picked up a couple of small stones and pelted them at the back of Demarcus' head to try to still act tough. Pissed off now, Demarcus fired off a warning shot to scare the kids. It worked. Sorta. He was too mad, and fired off the warning shot too quickly. He didn't really aim ahead of time, plus he didn't properly prepare his arm to handle the kickback like he normally would. The shot went stray, and ended up going through a storefront window, killing the shopkeeper inside with a clean headshot.

Sonhandra is fairly use to violent and/or criminal behavior, and most things are fair game. However, the local authorities still rushed in to see if this was going to explode into a turf war. Demarcus quickly sidestepped his crewmates and casually started walking away (to try to not draw attention to him). Problem is, he started walking before his coat fully had the gun hidden again (he needed a minute for the gun barrel to cool without burning his coat), and a local spotted it. He was excited by the model and started calling out to Demarcus, wondering where he got the gun and shouting the make and model across the street. Nervous that the authorities were going to find him due to this loud mouth, Demarcus ended up selling the guy the gun (since he seemed to like it so much). It was a decent price, but still massively below market value. Demarcus then proceeded to casually wander Ugar to try to not draw any further attention. In the end, he ended up getting horribly lost.

Back in front of Wildside, the one bouncer that went to fetch a higher-up returned and whispered something to the other guard. With the "trouble maker" Demarus no longer with the other two, they're finally allowed inside and escorted to a sort of waiting lounge; not quite in the society house proper, but off the street at least. There, they are greeted by a minor noble named Vallis. She's long, lanky, and skeletally skinny with drawn skin, but there's also an elegance about her that comes exclusively from the way she does her hair and the clothing and jewelry she wears; much like the stereotypical skeletal supermodel.

Not to call this model out or anything, but think Anja Rubik back during 2012's Fall/Winter Paris Fashion Week.

The Lanvin Ready-To-Wear runway during Paris Fashion Week
at Halle Freyssinet on March 2, 2012 in Paris, France.
(March 1, 2012 - Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images Europe)

Quinton does know of Vallis, and knows that she's worked with his noble friend and pseudo-lord Lang. The two have never personally met, though. Quinton still took point as he let her know that they had a package from Quirk, and showed her the box Quirk gave them (Quinton had left the worthless crystals on the Stardancer). Vallis has a single, exceptionally long and acrylic-like reinforced index nail. She picked up one of the crystals, and ran her nail along the full length. As she did, the crystal hummed and glowed, and tI'kæl sensed the mystical force of The Way resonating around them. Finding her proof that these are genuine - and high quality - Vosian crystals, Vallis became giddy, quickly paid Quinton and tI'kæl, and gleefully whisked the crystals away to a back room somewhere in the society house. As she headed out of the waiting room, Vallis told the duo that they would still have to pay like normal customers, but they were welcome to partake in the society house while there.

They opted to instead find their captain, who was still wandering Ugar somewhere. Actually, somehow, someway, Demarcus wandered OUTSIDE of the city of Ugar and into the desert-like sun side of Sonhandra. Quinton and tI'kæl made it back to the Stardancer, grabbed their land transports, and headed out to try to collect Demarcus from the sun side.

Breaking out of narration, this is the part of the gameplay (e.g. the part of closing out a job) where we sort out XP and complications to lead into the next job. One such complication was that the crew has a job with the Borniko Syndicate that they HAVE to do. The crew also built up 3 Heat in the Holt system, and earned 5 Cred (~$50,000) for the job. Quinton also purchased 2 Volts during some of his downtime while the other 2 spent their downtime training (leveling up character stats).

Before moving on to pick up Ishi, the crew heard of a RIP League race right there on Sonhandra scheduled for later that day, so they signed up. Meanwhile, Mevakor also heard about the RIP race. He knew he saw RIP Machines in the hull of the Stardancer, and was excited to see which team the crew "smuggled" them for, so he had his bodyguards escort him to the track on the day side of the planet.

That is where we're going to stop this week. Next post I'll talk about the RIP race, and maybe talk about the Ishi escort mission that started in our second session (the one where we were also socializing/watching Odin the kitten). We'll see how long describing the race runs me.

Thank you so much for sitting through my whining at the top of the post, and I hope getting to read the Scum and Villainy storyline was a nice palate cleanser. A much more pleasant way to send you back to the rest of your day.

One of these days I'll get back to putting this info on my World Anvil story "wiki" so it won't "clog up" my blog (because someday I'll actually talk about my fiction writing again here.... right?). In the meantime, though, I'll keep letting you fine folks in on the storyline here.

So, catch everyone next week!

Scum and Villainy rule book cover designed by art team:
Brett Barkley, Tomasso Renieri, Juan Ocha,
Michaela DeSacco, and Tazio Bettin
(Cheesy Batman-series-joke edits by LycoRogue)

Meet the Stardancer Crew

Generated by Bitmoji

Generated by Bitmoji

Hey, peeps! Today my mom is celebrating 26 years being cancer free! Way to go, Mom! Also, for the celebration, Hubby and I managed to make our way down to visit her for the first time in 15 months; literally the longest I've ever been away from my mom and sister my whole life. But we're here now, and we're celebrating!

Generated by Bitmoji
Edited by LycoRogue

Because of me visiting family, I didn't really have any time today to write up this blog post. Luckily(?), I fell behind last week, and so last week's missed post is now this week's. Win?

So, what exactly happened to delay my post a week? Well, for starters, my laptop is old (for laptop standards) and has been maddingly sluggish as of late. It kept me FOREVER to get just about anything accomplished last Tuesday, and eventually I needed to wave the white flag and get errands done instead (also, I needed to put the laptop away before chucking it across the room). I figured, "no worries. I'll work on it during work downtime." Valid plan, to some extent. Most of this blog was indeed written at work, but I didn't have the downtime I thought I would, so it was very much a week of slowly chipping away at this blog. Especially since I just kept getting too burnt out post-work - or I had other plans - so I barely even touched my laptop, let alone my blog, outside of work. Ironically.

But, I'm here now, so who's ready to meet the latest spacefaring crew?

Generated by Bitmoji

The 21st was Game 0 of the new Scum and Villainy campaign that I'm going to be running. It kept a few hours, and perhaps not-so-few "have we made a decision?" prompts from me, but we've got the base crew!

Let me introduce, the crew of the Stardancer!

Credit to the Scum and Villainy art team:
Brett Barkley, Tomasso Renieri, Juan Ocha, Michaela DeSacco, and Tazio Bettin

The crew doesn't have an official name yet, and they didn't pick out the ship name of Stardancer, but still, yay!

Let me explain, the SaV rulebook provides three different ship options for the crew to pilot. As I tried to explain to the players last Monday night, that doesn't mean there's a fleet of "Stardancer" ships zipping around the sector a la Firefly ships in the TV show Firefly and movie Serenity (the ship is Firefly-class and the individual ship name is Serenity). It means that the class this ship is - CF-350 Series Scarab-class Freighter, by the way - looks like the above image, and this particular type of ship is good for less-than-legal things, such as smuggling, blockade running, and illicit sales. Once the crew decided they wanted a Scarab, they happened to find one that was already dubbed "Stardancer." Just like the other options were a ship named "Cerberus," which is good for bounty hunters and/or extraction specialists, and a ship named "Firedrake," which is a ship within the class of choice for the rebels and generic Hegemonic criminals. In other words, these pre-owned ships were what was available at the time, and this crew chose the "Stardancer."

Normally, one of the parts of crew-building includes answering the question, "How did you get your ship?" Was it something the crew legit paid for? Was it something one of them inherited? Did it use to be a ship for legitimate business, but the pilot/owner decided criminal activities were more profitable? Was it commandeered from someone? Was it abandoned and the crew just salvaged it? Were they the only surviving mutineers? Was it a gift from someone rich and/or powerful? The answer to this question of how the crew got their ship in the first place could potentially be quite the fun plot-point later down the line. Much like the reveal of how Han Solo came about owning the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars.

Which brings me full-circle back to the name. Han didn't name his ship the Millennium Falcon. It already had that name, and he just never renamed it. Why would he? It already had quite the legend attached to it, and it was a sense of pride that he piloted THE Millennium Falcon. Similarly, after Barbossa mutinied for control of the Black Pearl in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, he didn't rename the Pearl. It was important to him that he was the captain of the Black Pearl specifically.

So, that's what happened with this crew. Somehow, someway, they ended up with this Scarab-class freighter already named "Stardancer." They haven't decided if they wish to rename it, but "Stardancer" is on the ship sheet, so that's what it's called for now. (Although, Hubby has joked about what the crew and ship names should be; more on that below). I also don't know how the crew came about owning this ship because they weren't quite sure themselves. We'll see if they come up with something by the time we start our first game on the 5th. Otherwise, I might have to come up with something myself for a nice plot-point down the road.

Generated by Bitmoji
Edited by LycoRogue

Anyway, after picking their ship, the crew was able to customize it a bit. One of the lines on the ship sheet actually includes the prompt: "Colors/Look". Granted, the crew hasn't thought too much about what the exterior of the ship looks like yet, but I'll be sure to have fun in GIMP a bit as the crew lets me know more about what they want their ship to look like.

Okay, this is all well and good, but what about the crew themselves?

Last update, I introduced you to tI'kæl (boy, her name isn't going to be annoying to write all the time with those special characters in it....). Rozsavaria and I got a bit more in-depth with her character Monday night. Previously, I let you fine folks know that tI'kæl is Memish, which means she's an aquatic alien from the ocean planet Mem. She has dark purple - almost black in some parts - scales covering her body and long tentacles for hair. She keeps her tentacles loosely braided, and she ritualistically carves her scales and embeds bioluminescent seaweed into the wounds as a way of religiously tattooing herself. The seaweed she uses happens to glow yellow, which matches the Ur artifact she wears: a choker made of golden star shapes linked together and capable of keeping someone alive while unprotected in the vacuum of space for up to an hour per full-charge.

Speaking of, Roz and I briefly talked about what kind of ritual tI'kæl would have to do in order to recharge her artifact. As of right now, we have that it has to bask in star light, so tI'kæl has to walk around in unobscured sunlight (so, not underwater or during cloudy days), or it has to be in a window of the ship so it can absorb the star light while they are flying through space. I feel like it's not quite specific enough of a ritual though, so we're still brainstorming between now and the 5th. Maybe if it has to be UNINTERRUPTED bathing in star light for a week? Maybe it's okay that it's a fairly simple "ritual" since she'd be without it for an in-game week anyway? Meh, we'll sort it out.

TI'kæl is also a princess of Mem with priestess-like duties to uphold. I wasn't able to get Roz to elaborate on what either of those elements of tI'kæl's backstory means though. Is she the daughter of her tribe's chief? Is her father a king of an actual kingdom (I did make a lot of Ariel from The Little Mermaid jokes that night)? Is the entire Memish population of the whole planet united under one patriarch, and tI'kæl is the princess of the entirety of Mem a la Princess Leia and Alderaan? Does her people have a sort of parliament that does the actual governing, and she's a royal figurehead? Is that why she's more focused on her high priestess duties? Does her people consider religious figures political leaders? Is she a "princess" because she's a High Priestess? What are the ramifications for her people that she has left Mem?

I guess we'll have to iron those details out a bit more as we play.

Likewise, Roz and I will also have to figure out more details with regards to her NPC friend and NPC rival. She had picked "Laxx, a xeno" as her friend, but we're not sure if "a xeno" means they're also Memish, or if they're a different alien species, and, if they're a different species, what are they? We also need to figure out if they have a gender. Alternatively, tI'kæl's rival is "Rye, an unrequited love." How far is this love unrequited? Is Rye still friendly with tI'kæl, but is also almost antagonistic to try to keep some emotional distance? Does Rye straight up hate tI'kæl? Does Rye want to befriend tI'kæl, but she's the one causing the tension as a means to try to get over them? Is Rye Human? Memish? Another type of xeno?

Circling back to me teasing Roz that tI'kæl is basically Ariel, Roz determined that tI'kæl is just curious by nature and desires to experience as much of the galaxy as she can. An underwater princess that wants out of the oceans of her home so she can be with humans and experience all the wonders they do? I mean, come on, that's a little bit like Ariel, right? Maybe then Rye is her pre-Kiss-The-Girl-singalong Eric? We even joked around the table that tI'kæl would use the futuristic sci-fi tech, but not as they are intended (at least, not unless corrected) because she doesn't know any better. For instance, when I gave the players a character questionnaire, one of the questions was "when was the last time you've used a blaster? Why?" TI'kæl's answer was "this morning at breakfast. Blasters are quite good at cracking nuts; just enough weight to them but still easy to hold and swing."

Anyway, getting back into the meme roots of her character, while building tI'kæl's RIP racer persona and machine, Roz went full Sonic the Hedgehog memes. Her machine is called Da Wey (so she can ask people if they'd like her to show them Da Wey, or if they already know Da Wey), and is shaped like the Egg Mobile from Sonic.

Various Dr. Robotnik/Eggman and Egg Mobile sprites ripped from the games

Roz was thinking Da Wey would be the spherical one in the bottom of the above image, mostly because it's the most iconic out of these options. However, I think either of the top two, especially the one from Sonic 2006 in the top-left, would be closer to what a RIP Machine would actually look like given the stats she chose. Which, of course, was nothing but acceleration because "gotta go fast."

To finish off the meme, tI'kæl's racing name is Sanic.

Switching gears over to Hubby, I'd like to introduce you to the Human Speaker Quinton Shrike. Speakers are basically respectable persons that are on the take. They're your classic corrupted politician or dirty cop or white-collar con-man. In Hubby's case, Quinton is a spoiled rich kid with an expensive habit and the knowhow to either not get caught or talk his way out of trouble.

Hubby hasn't figured out what Quinton looks like quite yet, but he's an apprentice with one of the more powerful guilds: The Starsmiths. Starsmiths are in charge of building starcraft, legalizing/registering them, and maintaining the hyperspace lanes between planets and between jump gates (which connect star systems). As a badged member of the Starsmiths, Quinton has a lot more pull and leeway with regards to the Stardancer's build. Quinton is legally licensed, which means he can therefore make "legal" improvements to the ship, talk his way out of most minor violations/infractions, as well as know enough of the dark market for ship parts to know how best to go undetected by the galactic law.

Quinton's family owns a small nightclub called "Raven's Nest" on the moon Warren, which is also an ecumenopolis: a single city that covers the entire surface of the moon. Warren is also where the governor of the sector lives, so it's a major political hub. In other words, maybe not the best place for a crew of outlaws, and yet Quinton helps ease his stress (an important game mechanic) by going home to assist with the nightclub. THAT'S gonna be interesting.

Generated by Bitmoji
(yes, I'm lame and reused this image
in the same blog post)

Hubby's rival is Manda, a Guild member. We talked about them - her? I can't recall if we landed on Manda being a her... - being a fellow Starsmiths Guild member, but Hubby landed on Manda being part of the biggest faction in the sector: the Guild of Engineers. However, Manda WANTED to be a member of the Starsmiths, which is where the rivalry started. There was only one position available with the Research and Development (design) department of the Starsmiths Guild, and Quinton won out over Manda. Instead of taking a different position within the Starsmiths and working their way into the R&D division, Manda decided they would rather pout and join a more prestigious guild instead, in an attempt to lord it over Quinton. He doesn't care, though, which just irritates Manda further.

As for Quinton's friend, Hubby couldn't resist. One of the streamers he watches for nopixel is Buddha. He has been playing GTA Online for years, and has been involved with nopixel for multiple server generations. His character Lang Buddha is a powerful criminal mastermind within the game's fake city of Los Santos. Lang is rich, is one of the only (if not THE only) characters to own his own penthouse, is a major crime boss in the city with his gang the CLeanbois, is influential enough in-game that the server developers custom designed CLean Manor - a mansion for Lang and the CLeanbois that they bought for $3-million in-game currency - and Lang owns multiple businesses both legal and illegal in nature throughout the city. One of his more legal ventures is the Rooster's Rest, an authentic Asian tea and ramen restaurant and social hall. Hubby had joked for a while about bringing in nopixel characters as inside-joke cameos for our SaV game, and during our Game 0 he pulled the trigger.

One of the options for a Speaker's ally is "Arryn, a Noble". Hubby scratched out Arryn's name and wrote in Lang instead. So now I guess we have to rebuild Lang Buddha as a space noble. That will be interesting. Hubby already has the connecting story that Quinton's family had been faithful stewards of Lang's family for years (generations?). This led to Lang becoming particularly close friends with Quinton and his immediate family. Lang even funded the Raven's Nest as a part-investment, part-gift for the Shrikes.

Now, I had mentioned above that Quinton is a rich boy with an expensive habit that he used less-then-legal means to fund. What is that habit, you might be asking? Well, it's RIP racing. He's become addicted to it, but it's not a cheap habit to have. On top of that, Quinton has become fairly good at the underground races, and wants to move up into the official RIP League. He can't without a team, though. Quinton had been watching Sanic race for quite some time, and respected her skills, so he asked her if she wanted to form a team with him. When tI'kæl agreed, they realized they did not have the funds needed to start up the team. That's when they went to search for sponsors, upon failing at that, Quinton suggested they become a criminal crew to get the crits they needed to get themselves started in the League.

Much like Sanic, Quinton went with acceleration as his main RIP Machine stat. He dubbed himself "Poet" for his racer name, and christened his Machine "The Dark Soliloquy." I haven't taken the time to doctor any of these images to better fit Hubby's description, but the basic shape of The Dark Soliloquy is that of the Batwing.

Batwing designs from the Batman franchise

Hubby's design has The Dark Soliloquy's cockpit area painted a deep, royal purple, with the wings and thrusters of the Machine a rich, hunter green. Also, the thrusters are specially designed (probably by Quinton himself) to produce black flames. The main reason Hubby picked out the Batwing as his inspiration for his Machine is because of those sharp wings. The Dark Soliloquy's wings are actually hammered to be razor sharp, to help cut through both air friction and the competition if they get too close! Finally, instead of the "bat ears" at the end of the cockpit, the tip is a sharp, sword-like point.

I'll have to have some fun in GIMP to re-design the Batwing into Dark Soliloquy, and then show you guys closer to what Hubby had in mind.

Now, as I mentioned, Quinton and tI'kæl started their partnership by attempting to find a sponsor (or sponsors) for a team. This is how the duo met Quarthix's character.

Time to meet the crew's Muscle: Demarcus. (Sadly, I can't quite read Quarthix's handwriting, so I can't read what the last name is. I'll get confirmation and update later).

Demarcus is more than just the standard Muscle, he's kind of a Jack-of-all-Trades, but REALLY likes brawling with people, which is why he's "mostly" the Muscle. Quarthix hasn't really figured out how or why Demarcus became the "mob doctor" for the Borniko Syndicate, but that was his main station within the faction when Quinton and tI'kæl came to them to see if they'd be willing to sponsor an up-and-coming new RIP racing team. They didn't really want to sponsor the team, but they were intrigued by the duo enough to offer a few favors. One such favor was offering Demarcus as a new crew member for the duo. Demarcus had been getting a bit antsy within the Syndicate, and he would be able to better show Quinton and tI'kæl criminal means to fund their team. Feeling a touch obligated, but also intrigued by the new "job opportunity", Demarcus gladly threw his lot in with the two RIP racers.

Demarcus started "training" Quinton and tI'kæl by introducing them to one of the Syndicate's main info brokers.

Quick time-out on Demarcus so I can tangent about the info broker for a minute. When building up their crew and customizing the ship sheet, the players got to pick a "trusted contact" that they all have access to and equal standing with. The options for the Stardancer ships were a dockmaster, a keen-eared barkeep, a tugboat captain, a diplomat, and a reclusive info broker. Tugboat captain was instantly dropped from contention, and the group reasoned that Quinton was basically their diplomat already. There was some debate between dockmaster, barkeep, and info broker, but it didn't take long for the group to decide on Citani, a reclusive info broker.

I was already planning on bringing Maggie the Info Broker into SaV. There would be no point in doing so, though, if the group already has an info broker as a contact. Poor Maggie would be redundant, just as she would be if I ever did manage to make it onto the nopixel private server. So, instead, I saw their choice as a golden opportunity. Maggie was going to be fairly hidden and reclusive anyway, so.... much like Hubby scratched out Arryn's name to put in Lang's, I scratched off Citani and put in Maggie's name. Roz had already memorized that the character's name was canonically Citani, so when I corrected her that the friendly info broker was actually named Maggie she seemed disappointed. I guess "Maggie" isn't Sci-Fi enough for her? So, while I was helping Hubby and Quarthix finish up their characters, Roz researched names that use "Maggie" as a nickname, and came across the old Norse name Magnilda. It means "strong fighter" or "battle maiden", depending on the source. Neither meaning quite matches the personality I gave Maggie, but I still liked the way the name sounded, so I figured I could make it work. She'll be like the fantasy or sci-fi barkeep that seems humble, but when push comes to shove, she's a scary force to contend with when she's trying to defend someone.

Think something like the depiction of Mrs. Bluveridge in Muppet Treasure Island when her inn and the boys are being attacked by pirates.

Circling back to Demarcus, while building up the crew and choosing a contact, the next step is to choose a faction that hates that contact - causing the crew to drop in standing with them - then choose a faction that is also friends with the contact, increasing the crew's standing with that faction. Since Maggie is an info broker, it was easy to decide that the Hegemony's military faction The 51st Legion wouldn't be a fan of hers. So Maggie is a recluse mostly because she's on the lam from the Legion. On the flipside, Quarthix thought it would make sense if the Borniko Syndicate were the ones that introduced the crew to Maggie. And so, that is why Demarcus specifically introduced Quinton and tI'kæl to Maggie.

As for Demarcus' personal friend and rival, much like Roz with tI'kæl, Quarthix isn't quite sure any of the history between Demarcus and the two characters Quarthix picked, but we'll figure it out via roleplay. In the meantime, we know that Demarcus is friends with Shod, a weapons dealer, and rivals with Chon-zek, a bounty hunter. We don't have descriptions of these characters, their genders, or if they are both human. It's kind of bare-bones, but it's a start, and we can flesh these two characters out while also fleshing out the two that Roz picked for tI'kæl.

Quarthix also set up Demarcus' heritage as a "wanderer": spacefarers that don't have one true planet as their home. Demarcus himself could have been born on a spaceship, or on a space station, or on a planet his parents were visiting, only to leave again soon after. Quarthix described Demarcus specifically as a "space hobo." However, Demarcus is fairly nicely dressed for a hobo. We're not sure if he's always dressed like this, or if it's a result of the Syndicate taking him under their wing, of if Quinton convinced Demarcus to dress sharper (especially since Demarcus loves hitting up the Raven's Nest whenever Quinton goes home), but Demarcus dresses in a leather vest with coattails and a "fancy" hat. Quarthix literally didn't think of any other description for Demarcus, but he knows this brawler and part-time doctor cares about his looks.

Now, Demarcus' reason for loving to hit up the Raven's Nest is because he loves to indulge in drugs. All drugs; any kind of drug. He doesn't care what it is or what it does or if he's tried it before. If it's a drug the locals are partaking, he wants in. So, while Quinton is helping his family run the nightclub, Demarcus is in the darkened corner trying out the latest batch of... whatever he can get his hands on. Considering tI'kæl's goal to "try everything," she's probably in the booth right beside Demarcus trying out the drugs with him.

Since Demarcus is now a member of the crew, he was convinced to also be a member of the RIP team, which they named Chaos Theory. Demarcus has tried RIP racing before. He's not as good as the other two, and isn't nearly as engrossed in the sport, but he likes the adrenaline rush and the potential to kill off the competition. Since destruction is more fun to him than actually winning, Demarcus went with a hulking Machine; nearly all weight. He actually repurposed an old ambulance to be his racing tank in the RIP races.

Design showcased on Eurobricks forum
Posted by Fabz on June 24, 2013

This is surprisingly close to what I was picturing when Quarthix talked about his RIP Machine designed to look like a blocky and tank-like ambulance. I'll have to show these pictures to him to see how close it matched his mental image. I'll also have to see if he was picturing different colors or decals on the outside. More fun in GIMP! Guess I might as well make it a hat-trick and figure out custom designs Roz wants on Da Wey. It would be fun to customize these base designs into something more original. It's not writing, but it's still a way to spark my creativity, so I'll take it.

Generated by Bitmoji

Anyway, Demarcus leaned heavily into the design of his Machine, naming it the Slambulance. I mean, if most of what he's doing is slamming into the Machines around him and sending them to the hospital (Hopefully. The grave is also an option....), at least he's giving his competition fair warning.

Not wanting to be one-upped by Roz in the meme department, Hubby convinced Quarthix to use the racer name Space Jam.

Doctored album cover for the Space Jam soundtrack

Honestly, Demarcus is only there to help his teammates in the race and smash as many other racers as he can, and I'm all for this. These races are going to get interesting.

Another potentially interesting element of this game are the statuses the Stardancer crew have with the factions of SaV. I already discussed how they have favor with the Borniko Syndicate because of Demarcus' connection with them and the tie back to Maggie the info broker. I also mentioned how the crew's friendliness with Maggie caused them to be in poor standing with the 51st Legion. Well, while customizing the Stardancer during character creation, there are three times the factions are either directly or indirectly involved. The third time is because of the contact the players choose: "one faction is also friends with this contact; one is enemies with them."

The first is the general body upgrades. After choosing the 2 initial upgrades the crew wants to start with, they got to choose a faction that helped them with these upgrades. The group picked out two generally illegal upgrades, so they had Borniko help them out. Maybe the Stardancer was another way the Syndicate "invested" in the trio. Either way, after choosing the faction, the group chooses one of three options:

1. Pay the faction half of the crew's starting funds for the upgrades.
2. Owe the faction a favor and gain one status with them.
3. Stiff the suckers and lose a status with that faction.

The group went with option #2, and so they are now just waiting for the Borniko Syndicate to come a'knocking. Which of course means I have to come up with a job the Syndicate will ask the crew to do for them. It also means the group is already in pretty good standing with the Borniko with a +2 for the status with this faction. Makes sense if Demarcus is a kinda-sorta member of the Borniko.

The second, and, in this case, final time the group needs to make decisions with regards to factions, is with the other two upgrade options. Now it doesn't need to be the ship itself, but auxiliary items. After picking the two upgrades, the group collectively figures out which of those upgrades was a "gift" from a faction, and which one caused tension with a faction. They decided on a medical bay, added on by the Starsmiths Guild, thanks to Quinton. He's a member of this guild, and he was able to talk his way around having the illegal-unless-licensed particle cannons, as well as the completely-illegal cloaking device. In the end, the Guild helped as a favor to Quinton, adding a point in their status. On the flipside, Quinton managed to convince the Guild of Engineers to let his crew do the field testing of the latest land transports (the land transports being the other upgrade). This meant these transports were no longer available for the Echo Wave Riders, a gang of extreme racers and daredevils always itching to try out the latest transportation tech. They were hyped to get the land transports, until Quinton unintentionally (or MAYBE intentionally) sniped them of the opportunity. They now have an eye on our small little crew, and possibly a way to steal the transports. Regardless, there's some serious beef between these guys.

So, our final results are, 0 or neutral status with most of the game's canon factions. The crew has a +1 status with the Starsmiths, and a +2 with the Borniko Syndicate. On the flipside, the crew has already managed to piss off the 51st Legion, with a -1 status. And they have seriously insulted the Echo Wave Riders, dropping their view of the Stardancer crew to -2!

Speaking of the crew as a whole, Hubby may have actually thought of a potential name for the crew and for the ship (as I mentioned towards the top of this post). For obvious reasons, each player is asked to come up with a criminal alias for their character. Not really being subtle about who they are, tI'kæl picked "Space Princess." Quinton picked "Lord." After some back-and-forth between Doctor and Captain, Quarthix decided that Demarcus would go with "Captain." Mainly so he can say he's "Captain" Demarcus, even if he doesn't actually captain any spacecraft.

I tried to help Hubby come up with a potential gang name, and joked that they could be "The Elites" since they have a "Princess", "Lord", and "Captain" in their crew. Hubby followed up with the suggestion that their ship should then be rebranded as "Privilege." To which, I questioned if they repainted the ship to be entirely white.

Generated by Bitmoji
This is a terrible joke,
and I apologize.

Hubby sent the "ideas" for the crew name, ship name, and... ship color, apparently... to Quarthix, who loves the idea. I also sent the options to Roz, who simply responded with "Oh my" so.... she's the deciding vote and hasn't settled yet?

As of right now, this is still simply "the crew" of the Stardancer. Come July 5th, however, they may be The Elites of the white Privilege.

Generated by Bitmoji

Oh man, that was a LOT of game lore I just dumped on you guys, huh? I also found my old GE handheld micro-cassette voice recorder from... at least college, but I think as far back as high school, honestly. So I've had this dang thing for something within the neighborhood of two decades!!! Anyway, I found it, it still works, AND I can still buy micro-cassette tapes! I know! In The Year Of Our Lord, 2021, I can still find analog options like actual cassette tapes! Boy, did my mom win out when she got me this thing for a gift, didn't she?

Generated by Bitmoji

Point being, I'm going to attempt to record our game sessions. A 90min tape recording at half-speed should be more than enough time, especially since it auto-turns off if there's more than 3 seconds of dead air. Right? Starting the game at 7pm, that carries us to 10pm. Add in bathroom breaks, and... yeah... that should be enough time. Worse comes to worst, I can just turn the tape over and keep going.

Either way, I'm then planning on going back over the recording and kinda-sorta transcribe it. I'll sum up the action bits and any exposition, and then transcribe the actual in-character dialogue. We'll see how long it takes for me to go, "screw this; I don't have time for this!" I do like having a permanent thing to go back to to refresh my memory though. I loved it when I played the D&D campaign as Jolene and the whole game was written out as a real-time play-by-post. I still periodically go back and read through it if I have forgotten a detail from that game. Same with the actual play-by-post X-Men roleplay X-Future that Hubby ran. I also really enjoy the fact that I can re-live Oxventure sessions both through the YouTube uploads and their podcast. Same for the Blades in the Dark campaign the Oxventurers post on YouTube. There's multiple Twitch and YouTube channels dedicated to RP campaigns; most notably Critical Role. There are clips, or full streams - if you go to the player themself - of nopixel gameplay.

I just adore this ability to go back, and I'm sad that my roleplay with characters like Kriv, or Emerald Gaze, or Airis, or Mara are just left to fading memories. I tried to remedy that by writing session summaries for both the D&D campaign I played Kriv, as well as last year's attempt at Blades in the Dark. My memory is only so good, though, and if I happened to be busy the day after a session, the details started getting SUPER fuzzy, and the journaling attempts failed.

This time, though! As long as I either a) get more tapes in time to rotate through them, or b) transcribe a tape within a fortnight (we're playing SaV every odd-week Monday), I'll be able to keep track of everything! Might even invest in a digital voice recorder so I can just straight up keep the recordings after each session.

Which means I'll have access to a LOT more lore and general story to relay over to you fine folks. It's a bit much for my blog posts, especially if I ever get to the point of swinging this thing back to a writing blog. I'm seriously thinking about just creating a fan wiki for everything. The problem is that I can't just call the campaign "Scum and Villainy" because it would be about this specific campaign; not the game itself. Which means coming up with a unique name to distinguish our playgroup from the games themselves. Much like how OutsideXbox and Outside Xtra have their D&D campaign specifically listed as Oxventure, or nopixel for that specific server's version of the GTA online game. I'd also want to title it more based on the galaxy we collectively build, that way if the Stardancer's crew switches out with new characters, or the crew pick a new ship to fly, it can all still be contained on the wiki.

And you guys know how good I am at names/titles.

So this might be something to pitch to the group, or wait for something to organically form.

Alternatively, I remembered that a bunch of YouTubers I follow - specifically Overly Sarcastic Productions and Hello Future Me - have mentioned the program WorldAnvil. It's mostly a writing assistant program, helping organize storybuilding elements and the like. However, these YouTubers also promoted the fact that World Anvil is great for roleplayers as well, because it's great at organizing player characters (PCs), non-player characters (NPCs), locations, events, etc. You can also share the link after essentially creating the equivalent of a fan wiki. Excited that I wouldn't necessarily have to come up with a title for this thing (since you can change up the titles on World Anvil), I went to work on writing something up. Except.... you can't put in all the PC information yourself. The players would each have to sign up for at least the free version of World Anvil in order to add in their character information themselves.

Switching gears, I cancelled the campaign mode and decided to use World Anvil as if this game were a story series I'm plotting. Managed to put in the characters' information that way! Whoo! I spent some time on Sunday getting started on the articles to see how it looks and if I want to keep investing in this "pseudo-wiki" attempt. This is such bare-bones, and I'll have to play around to see the easiest way for others to navigate this page, but here's my starting "world build" page for SaV.

Generated by Bitmoji

Whew! This... this was a long one. Guess it makes sense it kept me a week to slowly chip away at it, huh? Anyway, I'll let you fine folks go. I hope to get back on time next Tuesday, but I might be so excited by Monday's first ever SaV official game that I may be a toooouch late with my update while I try to organize how much of the story I want to relay over to you sweet peeps.

In the meantime, one final Happy Pride Month to my LGBTQIA+ readers.

Generated by Bitmoji