7. What is a session of play like? (What sorts of events or activities engage the group on a given evening?)
It depends on a lot of things. First we have the usual BS session and catching up from the last time we got together. That lasts about half an hour and then I do any side planning with any players who want to look into things on the side, like they want me to know they keeping an eye out for a particular weapon, suit, piece of gear, or drugs, etc.. That way i'll let them know if they come across them like in a window or something, but mainly they are just letting me know some of their goals this session if possible to do them.
I do a quick recap of the last time our heroes were seen, and we dive in from there. Depending on the situation it could be anything. Our last one has the gang shipwrecked on a completely unknown world far, far from the frontiers and tracking down a lost Scout expedition that found evidence of having crashed here 100 years ago. They found the wreckage, which due to the really arid atmosphere, and the ship being buried half underground, they think they might be able to salvage enough off the M-Drives to at least get their own ship off this place and out to the 100 dia jump point.
Because this world has a 1.3 gravity their ship's damaged M-drive with only 1 G acceleration (it normally does 4G) won't cut it. But if they can squeeze .4G out of the drives with the parts from this wreck - even if they blow out once they get past the gravity well they'll be able to safely jump to where they know they have a dock. It can be surprising how far away a dead-end world is when you are stranded on it.
We left off after one of the players fell into a tunnel deep inside the wreck when the dirt under him collapsed. The tunnel looks like it was dug but something about his size so it might be the end for our hero. Meanwhile, the rest of the group is keeping an anxious eye on the horizon because the locals here don't like anyone to remove anything from this part of the world because it is holy land and the gods' property. Even crashed ships from long ago.
8. What sorts of things do the PCs do during play? (What sorts of actions, activities, rolls, roleplaying, anything else do the PCs do during a session? Can you give any examples of particularly representative moments?)
Players roll their own dice and I roll mine behind my ancient referee shield from Judges Guild. I like my rolls secret for two reasons: one, the players don't always know all the factors involved in some rolls and I don't want to give anything away, and two, sometimes I fudge in favor a player who does something really worthy of a little divine intervention. Like he saves the rest of the party from certain doom, so he survives certain death himself, scarred and with permanent losses in something maybe, but at least he is alive. If it is too obvious, though I never do that...only on the marginal calls which I try to make in favor of the players who are really trying.
We try to emphasis roleplaying, but it mainly comes down to just making sure you only act on info as your character would even if you know otherwise. Other groups were more heavily into being in-character all the time...this one is about 60/40. We are pretty casual and have become really good friends through the game.
They have done a really good job of playing their characters, too, as the sort of characters you would find in my universe. For example, other than exploring a huge thing the Scouts do is Colony Support. It's like a cross between mentoring the colonists so they don't starve due to ineptitude, and providing security Fort-Apache style if the need arises. Eventually the colony has to stand on its own, but until then the boys and girls in the slouch hats man the walls between the bug-eyed monsters and the colony women they have unholy interests in.
So the players at one point found themselves on this little undeveloped world with about 100 colonists. It used to be 2000 or so, but the Prox (aliens in the next subsector, 4 Jumps away) have been driving them out one way or another. The 100 men, women, and children left were the ones determined to stay even if because they have nowhere else to go. The players found this place because they had been hired to haul some farm equipment here by a couple of the colonists they met on a world on the other side of the subsector.
Once the containers were off-loaded and opened the players saw the settlers had bought for themselves two good tractors, an old armored fighting vehicle, and a pile of guns and ammunition that looked like it was surplus from the last war. The plan was to use the fruit of all the money they had had left to buy this stuff with and defend their colony to the bitter end if needs be. Judging by what the old tank and guns looked like the crew figured that was how it would end, too.
Of the 7 PC's 5 wanted to leave (This ain't our fight, and even if we beat them this time the Prox'll just come back again with more...these farmers are dead meat.), and the other two wanted to stay. They were ex-Scouts and they played ex-Scouts. They refused to leave, and wanted to help the colonists defend the place...or, try to at least get the women and kids out if things go badly. Since one of them was the only pilot the ship had the rest groaned about it but had to stay, too.
The colonists made them all real lemonade and had a big outdoor lunch set up in thanks. The men dug trenches and under the supervision of a PC ex-Marine made some traps to funnel Prox troops into killing zones in the little "town". Everyone picked a spot to fight from, and the smarter ones picked a second fall back spot to make their stand at. When the Prox ships (2) landed outside town and their troops formed up, the town and players were ready.
The fight was a hoot - very old Western with lots of fun playing to the different characters and plying up the odd things that happened. Like how one guy who became known as The Old Man, was in his house shooting it out from his living room - laying out one Prox soldier after another with his old shotgun. He became the focus of an epic story where the players insisted he was crouched behind his favorite Lazy-boy chair and "Dammit, I'm not letting any damn alien chase me outta my house, I been here 50 years n'll be here another 50, by gum!" Blam-blam..... He actually survived the battle and was the town hero after he showed up alive in the basement of his by then burning and rubbled house.
Two PC's were killed during equally heroic actions: one getting the women and children to the PC's ship for possible evacuation at a point where they thought they were going to lose the fight, and the other was sniping from a hide that a Prox drone found and blew up after he killed several officers in the initial attack.
Finally, the Prox had to give up when the players decided to chance attacking the Prox ships while they were on the ground and mostly empty - almost all the prox being involved in all-but-mopping-up the town's remaining defenders.
The PC's took off and made a controlled crash landing right between the two Prox ships, destroying one (and seriously damaging their own do so), and blowing the bridge off the other. When the Prox troops saw that they surrendered honorably, and the players negotiated a joint colony effort between the aliens and the colonists. The PC's returned a game-year later and the place is doing well. In fact, two PC's came from there: Prox brothers nicknamed Nippy and Rippy.
I've probably buried you now in minutiae and drivel that had nothing to do with your questions, but I hope I still managed in the mess to answer them? You can ask more, and we can compare notes, etc.. if you want. PM me your email and we'll do it that way if you want more info so it's easier. I get to rambling because of my meds sometimes so if you want clarification on your questions here just ask.
