Today’s post is a report of Undercity Noir game 2, session 3. As with previous reviews, I will keep one free (or mostly free) of spoilers. This session did not go as expected, but things were (mostly) fine.

Administrative Issues

This is a play test, so administrative issues are even more important than in a typical game. The main topics were character size and build in relation to ST. For that I will link to a Mailanka post. This was more of a “I want to understand how you see your character” than anything else. The other topics were related to racial templates and alternative abilities. I may delve into those topics later (unless Mailanka does it first) as the latter topic was interesting.

howtotalktoagirl.spacecom

We started with Gleep and Mr. Buttons at the establishment where we were to meet Mortimer Sallow. He began fast talking some “free” gambling credits and was let into the back of the establishment where he could meet with Cherry. He engaged in some minor gambling and even won a little, but his main goal was Cherry. Mr. Buttons played “wingman” and gave Gleep “generic internet search advice” about how to speak to Cherry. Following Mr. Buttons’ counsel, Gleep managed to recruit her for 35k Wei.

Another bounty hunter came in after the deal was done and tried to swipe Cherry, but she decided not to “go back on the deal” she already made. The other bounty hunter made some thinly veiled threats, and Gleep retaliated by “glitching” his cybernetic eyes. The hunter left trying to save face, but he was clearly unsteady. The last thing the hunter saw was Gleep’s grin.

The Others Arrive

Anastasia, Blake and Xaka already met outside last session and narrowly avoided a few incidents. They arrived together and checked (most of) their weapons and found a seat. Anastasia ordered Matatabi liquor, and Xaka ordered tonic (he claimed to be the “designated driver,” but he wanted to maintain proper faculties and a healthy liver). Blake had never heard of Matatabi and so ordered it as a tea. Blake also spent her free Impulse Buy point to pick a drink for Simon who hadn’t yet arrived.

Simon did eventually arrive, and Gleep came to meet the rest of the crew. Xaka had the highest level of Intelligence Analysis but rolled poorly. Thankfully, he had Luck. Luck is not actually on the Antiquarian template since it is a “sidekick” template, but I considered it almost mandatory, and the choice finally paid off. The specific details of the analysis are spoilers, but we did reduce BAD.

The Meeting

Mortimer Sallow seemed to be entirely legitimate, completely honest and the most humble person in the galaxy. Negotiations were going fairly well, and he even gave us a bonus job (which I will not spoil). “His girl,” Mara, gave a great singing performance. Most were fairly impressed, but Blake was totally entranced. Mr. Buttons was confused and wasn’t sure if he should help Gleep get together with Cherry or Mara.

Mara then came to try and read our minds. Blake and Xaka resisted, and Blake’s ear rings warned her that they stopped something. After her general reading, Mara walked around the table and tried to “probe” Blake stealthily. She touched Blake, and Blake jumped in surprise. Xaka wasn’t having it and touched Blake to Jam Mara’s ability with a critical success. Xaka’s Ancestral Guide, Maþūstāña, also provided some information about Mara which I will not spoil.

The negotiations would have gone quite well, until the cat girl nearly ruined it. We suspected Anastasia would cause trouble, but the actual problem was Blake! She received a vision and decided discretion was not part of her vocabulary and simply told everyone. The details are probably spoilers, so I won’t mention them, but Mr. Sallow was not pleased. Xaka tried deflecting the issue (I didn’t think of it at the time, but blaming it on the Matatabi would have been a good excuse), but Gleep saved the day with great fast talking. We concluded the negotiations.

The Fight

The final part of the session involved a fight with a large group of gangsters. When and where will remain a mystery. I am confident that it was intended to be an easy fight. The first real fights in Mailanka’s games tend not to be particularly challenging. Due to the particular circumstances flight was a better option that fighting all of the adversaries, but a clear path to escape was not available. We had to deal with some foes.

Anastasia and Simon went to deal with the main force (along with some NPCs) while the rest of use took another path to escape. Anastasia took some risky Committed Attack maneuvers to take additional steps and took out a few foes. Simon also did a great job with his powerful pistol, Enhanced Time Sense and Gunslinger. Despite Anastasia’s efforts, she was defeated by a powerful psionic foe. She was saved by deus ex datapad call and a helpful NPC. Simon followed the rest of the crew after some covering and thinning of the main force.

The escape was also blocked but by a much smaller force. Cherry punched some mooks into a wall and started a fire. Gleep’s plasma pistol was incredibly effective against the mooks. Blake got a good hit with her monowire whip. Xaka wasn’t particularly effective as he rolled 16 on Sleep, and I wanted to save Luck for defense. Gunslinger Simon was also able to help clear the escape route. Finally, Gleep managed to Fast-Talk a repulsor car into letting us use it to make an escape.

Thoughts

First, there were a few rules notes for the session:

Critical success doesn’t have a special effect in a Quick Contest other than a high margin
- It does have one for a psi technique - it waives the FP cost
  - This fact made absolutely no difference for Xaka since he would recover the lost ER in 10 minutes anyway
- It may make a difference against mooks if using BAD as a penalty instead of a proper QC
Committed Attack is not actually necessary for Weapon Masters to get an extra step in Psi-Wars
- Chambara rules allow trading extra attacks from Rapid Strike for steps
- Unfortunately, that would not have save Anastasia
HP is important in Psi-Wars
- Anastasia’s 9 HP led to her defeat
- She actually took two Major Wounds, but the first one was ignored due to forgetting that she only had 9 HP
Impulse Buy points are useful
- While making use of Rapid Strike and Chambara rules wouldn’t have save Anastasia against psionic attacks, Impulse Buys may have had she used them
- Mailanka gives us one free IP/session

I think the session went fairly well.

Gleep got some early spotlight to compensate for missing the previous session
Anastasia finally got a good fight and may have something else that suits her skills in the near future
Simon got to show off his Gunslinger abilities and Enhanced Time Sense
Blake and Xaka both got to “use” their passive abilities for exposition
Gleep put his amazing Con Artist skills to use
- He even used them on a vehicle
Xaka didn’t do much in the combat (what a shocker), but he did Jam a Mind Probe at default

I am not a fan of too much combat (by definition) and prefer a good amount of role playing, puzzles, planning, negotiations, etc., but a good fight every once in a while is fun. This is also a heist adventure, so I expect combat to be somewhat infrequent until something big happens. That is also Mailanka’s style, so I doubly expect it to go that way.