Sea of Stars - OOC II

[rax]

Regarding what vehicle to race, now that we seem to have gotten a bunch of different vehicles, the Salamander scout tank from Only War seems like a decent bet. It's not as fast or manoeuvrable as a Tauros, but it beats all other tracked vehicles and it's better armoured and armed than a Tauros. It also seats four, so several of us can pile in.

The downside regarding any guns on almost any vehicle is that they tend to be heavy weapons, and I'm not sure any PC has training in them?

[Blarghy]

Hmm. It looks like you're right. I assumed Felidae did, but, it doesn't seem so. Though, she could just use her long-las and storm bolter, and throw grenades if any vehicles get close enough. Unless we put her on a ridge overlooking the track and have her snipe the other racers, I do think she should be on the main team.

I don't have Only War, but you're the expert. Both OOC and IC. I think it makes sense for Hannabel to browse through our new fleet and choose personally. She's the linchpin of this operation, after all.

[rax]

Well, we'll need all the bonuses we can get, so Macharius should come along for the ride. Probably Ravia too if the vehicle needs repairing during the race. As for manning the guns, perhaps we could recruit a local or perhaps there's some qualified shootist on the Sting or the Fury. An unknown in the equation is whether we need someone with decent surface navigations skills and knowledge of the local terrain. In that case, Macharius should definitely do a recruiting drive to bring friendly/needy locals on to our side.

[Kaptin Keen]

Well, a grenade launcher is a basic weapon - and it fires krak grenades. I think that's as heavy as we can get. But of course, krak grenades don't make much of an impression on say, a land raider.

[PotatoGolem]

Huh, I wasn't getting notifications of new posts for some reason. Is everyone ready to move on? I'll post in the IC.

[PotatoGolem]

Updated. What sort of weaponry do the shuttles have? Even if it's just autocannons, we could blast away at the enemy from the air, which is a crucial advantage.

[Blarghy]

Maybe another Inquiry check from Anika to compile a list of our top enemies who need killing? Probably mainly from the Immortans, but I'm not opposed to taking out Smokers or Lunes, if it gets us to where we need to go.

I can't think of any other plans or preparations Echo needs to make, unless we're going to hunt down an Ambull for Ravia's experiments. I'm down to help with that, if we're interested. But otherwise, I'm good to move onto the race.

[Haval]

Maybe another Inquiry check from Anika to compile a list of our top enemies who need killing? Probably mainly from the Immortans, but I'm not opposed to taking out Smokers or Lunes, if it gets us to where we need to go.

I'm not sure how much of a threat the Lumes are here, but Inquiry for Echo's question. Might just ask the local hires first.
vs. Fel 47
(1d100)[57]
FP if needed
(1d100)[45]

And 1 bonus degree of success for Seeker of Lore

[Destro_Yersul]

Most of your top enemies who need killing are going to be in the race itself. The Lumes are going to be fielding one attack bike and two regular bikes, and probably racing as hard to outdo each other as they are anything else. Moore's leaving a few people behind that you could assassinate to destabilise the Immortans, as is Deacon. It's also almost gauranteed that both of them will have ambush forces on foot posted somewhere along the course.

For your shuttles, you have Arvus lighters and one Aquila lander. The Aquila is armed with a single autocannon. The Arvus' are unarmed.

[rax]

And checking on the vehicle combat rules, if a character has an appropriate Drive or Pilot skill for a vehicle, they are also trained in the use of weapons mounted on the vehicle. If not, a character still needs the proper weapon training talent.

A pilot or driver can also fire one(?) weapon on a vehicle as long as has the actions to spare. Which means that Hannabel could occasionally fire a weapon, but it would preclude her doing much more than keeping our vehicle moving a standard tactical speed.

So, assuming we're going to take a Salamander for the competition, anyone using the heavy weapons without either Drive skill or Heavy Weapons Training will be doing so with a -20 penalty to hit. The good news is of course that there are size bonuses to hit other vehicles.

[Destro_Yersul]

Looking through things, Ravia seems to be the only other person with Drive (Ground). So she should probably be doubly on the vehicle team, as she'd be capable of firing mounted weapons. Your Salamander, incidentally, has a Heavy Flamer as its hull weapon along with the standard light Autocannon.

[Leon]

Im back and will catch up on what ive missed and get any relevant posts done sometime soon

[Destro_Yersul]

Alright. I need Ravia's tech-use roll, and a quick response from Macharius, and then I think we're good to move on to the Election stage of the game.

Final team selection, I believe, is as follows:
Team Deathrace:
Macharius
Hannabel
Felidae
Ravia

Team Sneakystabby:
Echo
Anika
the Rings
maybe some Praetorians?

correct me if I'm wrong. Commodore Gilead and the Marines will run race interference. The Praetorians could also go with them, but lack heavy weapon training. I should probably work out some way for the Praetorians to gain XP, given how they come along with you guys so much...

Anything else you want to do before we start the engines?

[Leon]

Tech Use TN 93 (barring any other mods) (d100)[26]

[Blarghy]

Looks good to me. I'm all set.

Echo himself isn't sneaky at all, especially in his bulky void-suit with that Ag penalty, so, I don't know if you intend for him to go along with the Rings. I would like to test out his tricked-out Hellpistol and mastery of The Lidless Stare at some point, but, if it makes more sense for me to just control the Rings, then that's cool too. I'll leave it open-ended in my post and try to get that written up before I fall asleep.

[Kaptin Keen]

Yay - democracy!

[Blarghy]

Yay indeed. Let's go vote.

I'm pretty sure my rhythm's off in that post, but I've never been much good at that, and in any case, I'm sleepy. Off to bed.

[Leon]

Looks good to me. I'm all set.

Echo himself isn't sneaky at all, especially in his bulky void-suit with that Ag penalty, so, I don't know if you intend for him to go along with the Rings. I would like to test out his tricked-out Hellpistol and mastery of The Lidless Stare at some point, but, if it makes more sense for me to just control the Rings, then that's cool too. I'll leave it open-ended in my post and try to get that written up before I fall asleep.

A Lidless Eye, controlling rings, have we stumbled into Middle Earth.

[Haval]

Spoiler

Show

[PotatoGolem]

Question: are we allowed to bring any additional vehicles as escorts? And are the Praetorians trained in driving at all? They're bodyguards, so it is possible, unlike say Stealth or heavy weaponry.

[Blarghy]

A Lidless Eye, controlling rings, have we stumbled into Middle Earth.

Fear me, hobbits!

Question: are we allowed to bring any additional vehicles as escorts?

In light of this,

The Lumes are going to be fielding one attack bike and two regular bikes, and probably racing as hard to outdo each other as they are anything else.

and especially this,

When I said 'no rules' I meant it.

I assume yes. Having said that, a convoy is only as fast as its slowest vehicle, and I doubt any of our NPC crew are as good at driving as Hannabel. Plus, I'd be wary of "cheating" in a way that inspires frustration among the locals, as opposed to fear and respect. A blocker car or two could be considered good fun, but in my personal opinion, fielding a whole bunch of vehicles and clogging up the track might ruin the spirit of this murderous outing. Gotta entertain the people first and foremost, I would say.

[Destro_Yersul]

The intent is for you to have a team of Four. The Salamander fits four - the reason the Lumes have three bikes is to bring themselves up to full complement. That said, fielding four is a tradition rather than a strict rule, but it's something the rest of the groups are sticking to. The Praetorians are probably capable of driving.

[PotatoGolem]

Posted. Blarghy inspired me to do more than a quick update and actually flesh out Macharius' relationship with the Praetorians.

[Haval]

Nothing I need to do before the election.

Is there any reason why the Sting can't jam communications on the ground? Assuming they actually have them here.

[Blarghy]

Fate Point to reroll that check: (1d100)[62]

Charmed: (1d10)[5]

[Blarghy]

Just then she hears Echo's transmission, despair mounting as she listens. Finally, she begins rhythmically banging her helmeted head against the controls in sheer frustration. "Lord-Captain, please tell me that you didn't authorise that transmission? Please? You realize that he just told everyone out there that they're heretics and that if they don't bend the knee to us we'll kill 'em? If anyone needed an extra push to target us in this race, he just gave it to 'em!"

I think Hannabel's exaggerating here, myself. All the Clanlords are in this for keeps, clearly, and the caged skeletons in Deadman's Plaza probably weren't there because they insulted Moore's haircut. Our allies have been quite open about how they want to get rid of him (and dictators don't really get retirement plans) and then eliminate the raiders and bring order to the planet (which they probably won't do with hugs and handshakes). Winning, then killing anybody who doesn't respect the victory with subsequent obedience, seems like the rules here, not something Echo just made up on his own. As for painting a target on your back, we're the Star Clan that swooped in and immediately got Moore's attention. Soon as you pulled up to the starting line, he focused on Macharius and (subtly) threatened him. I'm pretty sure we're at the front of his mind. My thinking was that the Rusters and Interceptors would find the speech inspiring and hopeful, and Moore, however he reacts, at least wouldn't be any more murderous than he already was.

But beyond this, I gotta say, I'm puzzled by how Hannabel keeps seeming shocked and appalled by the brutality she encounters in this setting. Her background is pretty mysterious, but she did grow up here, right? As opposed to Felidae, who does have good reason to view the modern Imperium with disgust and dismay, being from a simpler time...when trillions upon trillions upon trillions were slaughtered or subjugated in the name of the Emperor's unflinching ambition. But Hannabel is from the world of corpse-starch and lobotomized servitors, the world where the Ecclesiarchy thinks they're purifying souls by torturing people to death, where the vast, vast majority of humans have zero rights and only duties, the world where most of the Inquisition operates on the principle that "Pity them not and scorn their cries of innocence - it is better that one hundred innocently fall before the wrath of the Emperor than one kneels before the Daemon." Kennoch is a rigid, unforgiving person, absolutely, but that's the default in this setting, and it's because he believes the lies he's been told his whole life about morality, the nature of humanity, and what we should hope and aim for as people.

Hannabel, on the other hand, is not only a genuinely good person (which is fine and entertaining), but also keeps getting caught off-guard by everyone who isn't. True, Rogue Trader is perhaps the only gameline in 40k where you have a real chance of making life better for people on the ground, as opposed to just barely holding back the latest catastrophe until a new one inevitably kills you. It's cool that Hannabel's a real hero among the grimdark. But I don't understand why she's always surprised by it.

[Kaptin Keen]

I agree 100% with Hannabel. That was incredibly rash, and not something that should be done on one characters initiative - in complete disregard of everyone else's goals.

[Blarghy]

Fair enough. I still think it makes sense within the context of the setting, but that’s no excuse to ruin everyone’s fun. I’m sorry for my rudeness and I’ll keep this in mind going forward so it doesn’t happen again.

[rax]

@Blarghy
I'm afraid you may be misreading Hannabel a bit here. I'll try and explain her reaction and maybe things will be clearer.

Hannabel's background involves being enslaved, press-ganged and other similar traumas. On a personal level, she will fight to the death to avoid ending up in such circumstances again, and to some extent this spills over into her attitudes on the proper treatment of "the little people" as well. She's not on a crusade to right the wrongs of the universe, but in general, she feels it's better (and smarter) to use the minimum amount of coercion to get people to do what we want.

When it comes to Viatrames in particular, there are several factors at play behind her reaction to Echo's pronouncement and the entire situation we're in. Firstly, she doesn't agree with Macharius' decision to take direct control of the planet. This is partly personal, partly practical. On a personal level, she's just not that interested in colonizing stuff - she mostly just wants to ride the aether and visit new places, and what she really wants right now is to get to the Winterscale ball. That's going to be an amazing new experience, unlike this wind-blasted dustball (Hannabel is a Hive Worlder, she's deeply uncomfortable spending too much time in empty wastelands)!

On a practical level - as I've argued in multiple posts - she thinks taking direct control of the planet is a waste of precious resources. The Absalom dynasty isn't a big player (yet) and we're already sinking resources into building up one colony and controlling the fishman planet. We're also trying to repair an ancient battle cruiser and our entire fighting/exploration fleet otherwise consists of the Sting and two damaged support vessels. In her (and my) opinion, we're lucky so far that no one we've antagonized has made a concerted effort to hit back yet. If they do, we may quickly see the work we've done so far unravel.

With that in mind, she still thinks we should've stuck to the original plan - trade for workers and machines and then go back to Port Davis. All we had to do was wait for the election to play out and side with the winner. We could probably also have worked out a deal with the winner and the Mechanicus to get the archeotech trade flowing again just by agreeing to provide them with whatever off-world goods they might have liked in the long term. Minimize the investment, maximize the return, and don't get tied down. That's pretty much Hannabel's ideal view of how to run a business when she bothers to think about it.

When it comes to Echo's pronouncement in particular, it's not Moore she's worried about so much as the effect it might have on the other clans. It's one thing for their leaders to work with us (and even accept Macharius' rule) when we seem to be doing what they want (bring order and what passes for civilization in the Imperium) and treating them with a modicum of respect, but my reading of Echo's pronouncement is that he just blasted out to everyone that Macharius is here to kill Moore, take direct control of the planet, and that we will put down with brute force anyone who doesn't abide by his view of right and wrong. That may be par for the course among the clans, but the difference is that Echo (and by extension Macharius) is an outsider.

Echo also told the population that it would have been better if they had died rather than adapt and survive by becoming capable technologists (the very skills we came here for, BTW). This is probably pretty insulting to a culture of hardcore survivalists and seems like a good way to give them second thoughts about working peacefully with us. Now it's possible Destro won't let things play out that way - not least because of how the grimdark the 40k universe is - but the 40k universe is also full of planets with people who have fought to the death against the Imperial way. Viatrames is an isolated world in the middle of nowhere with a culture that Macharius and Echo themselves have condemned as insufficiently Imperial. Destro could therefore just as easily motivate a turn of events whereby rubbing their faces in their relative powerlessness causes them to completely turn their backs on the Imperium.

Would our dynasty win such a confrontation? Undoubtedly, but we'd probably have to do it by destroying the very resources we came here for (people and vehicles) and would end up with an empty dustball requiring even more investment to get at what's left - the archeotech and some minerals (or was it oil?). To Hannabel, this would be utterly wasteful and unnecessary.

So to round off, I don't think of Hannabel as heroic. If you'll recall, she argued there was no real difference between Moore and most Imperial rulers and didn't see his methods as a reason to depose him. So she has no problems in principle with "firm" rulership, but she's fairly sure that Imperial rule is a lot more firm than is actually warranted in many situations, and that in many cases recidivism and secessions are caused by the oppressive rule that's intended to stop them.

One thing she does try to do though, is to try and prevent Macharius from going off the proverbial grimdark deep end in his methods. At some point in their past lives he showed a generosity of spirit that gave her the chance to find a home on the Sting and that moment ultimately colours her perception of him still. So when he seems to be heading unnecessarily far in the wrong direction she's not so much surprised as she's...disappointed.

Hope that clears some stuff up!

(Also, I didn't find your post rude and I understand what you were doing IC. If Echo had asked Hannabel when to make such a pronouncement though, she would have told him to wait till after we win.)

[Blarghy]

That's fair. I feel pretty embarrassed; I hope the rest of you don't suffer on my account. Maybe if we're lucky, any clan that takes offense will just trace the vox signal and send warriors to respond to Echo. That'd be fun for me and probably fairer to the group, I think.

In any case, again, I'm sorry for going off the rails.