Sandcrawler Menagerie - Alpha Blue actual play report

This post is a report of actual Alpha Blue play that went on earlier today via Roll20.

One GM (me) and two players.  One of the players (David) had very little roleplaying experience.  Neither of them had ever heard of Alpha Blue before the session started.

David wanted to be something unusual.  Those were his only instructions.  So, we went with an alien.  Strange that Roll20 doesn't have an easy go-to feature for rolling a d30, so I just rolled a d20 instead.  Crystalline!  Then I rolled size and got "human."  Rolling twice for alien features I got these: often uses "the" unnecessarily (think Starfire from Teen Titans Go!) and relates his experiences to The Wizard of Oz... which he believes is real or is based on actual events.  He wields a vorpal chainsword.

8BitAndroid already had a concept in mind - a human/wolf hybrid.  So, I assumed he'd be a mutant and that would be one of his three mutations.  The others being that he had horns and a kangaroo pouch.  For a weapon he carried a thermal detonator.

Both wanted to roll for a name.  Both rolled the same number and got Terran.  8Bit decided his character wanted to change his name to Akros Sterling, but also mentioned something about the two being blood brothers.

Next, I rolled for their occupation and got "bounty hunter" for both.  Haha!  They were blood brothers.

After what seemed like a century of people trying different things in order to get one picture to show - which led to my entire computer freezing/crashing - I gave up and simply described everything.  Below are bits of dialog that I'm cherry-picking from the chat archive.

VS:  Ok, both of you are cruising around in a stolen starship.  You felt as though Grabba the Butt (my go-to intergalactic gangster created by +Fantastic Dimensions) owed it to you.  Grabba had other ideas, so you just took off and haven't looked back since.  You stopped to refuel on a barren, desert world.  While filling your tank full of space gas, you notice a gigantic sandcrawler and a jawa selling a wide variety of robots.  Another spacer is present.  He's checking out their wares.

Terran:  Let's go.

Akros:  Junk and sand everywhere.  I wonder why Grabba was so upset with us?  At least we managed to... recover his ship.  It'll do us good.

Terran:  Well, we can't do anything about the Grabba.  It is what it is.

VS:  The jawa walks up to you.  "Do you enjoy our little sandcrawler menagerie?  Every droid half-price.  You can't go wrong with that sexbot, my friends."  Akros has 500 credits.  Terran has 800 credits.

Akros: [Mutters and inspects the bots]  Half price?  I wonder if they have any defects.  I'd hate to be duped out of hard earned credits if they're just going to fall apart after light use.

VS:  The jawa says, "I always include a guarantee in the price - one standard month."

Terran:  Only a month?

VS:  "Or buy the warranty - three standard years.  Only 100 credits!"

Akros: [Huffing a bit and kicking a few tires]  "Which one is the cheapest?"

VS:  You notice one of the prospective buyers is handling a blonde, female android that looks just like Kristen Bell.  She's not wearing much clothing.  The price tag says 400 credits on her arm.

Akros:  [Notices Bell but doesn't want to spend a lot of credits]

VS:  The jawa points to some cheap piece of CGI crap from one of the prequels.  "This one is only 50 credits, my friend.  You want it gift wrapped?"

Terran:  I don't think we need that one.

______

Meanwhile, Akros notices the other customer loosening the velcro strap on his blaster.  Akros comes up behind him and puts a blaster to his head.  The guy walks away, but then it turns out the jawa wasn't a jawa at all but a little amphibian alien with three eyes.  He sucker-blasts Akros in the chest for 11 points of damage.  Both the PCs started the game as 1st level characters with 25 Health.

It's a shootout!  A few rounds later, the ambushing alien named Meebly has a bloody stump for a leg due to Akros' thermal detonator and blackened/burned hand from Terran's blaster.

______

VS:  Meebly gets down on his hands and knees, "You've beaten me.  If you spare my life, I shall be your servant."

Akros:  You can serve my crystalline brother, but if you betray us I'll bite your head off.

VS:  "By the way, I stole this sandcrawler.  So, maybe we should get out of here?

Terran:  Let's get aboard the starship.

VS:  "Bring the sexbot.  KB will make a fine companion for the three of us.  She's the only one I didn't rig with explosives."

Akros:  I kick the console and get our ship flying.

VS:  "Also, my former masters, the klingons, will be here soon.  And I expect they'll be furious.  I was supposed to kill you both for 3,000 credits."

Terran:  That's it?

VS:  Just as you're about to leave the solar system, you notice a klingon warhip approaching the desert planet.  Meebly:  "Whoo boy, I'm beat.  Where do you spacers keep the Venusian whisky?"

Akros:  Shit!  I'm going to activate a cloaking device or something.  [rolls a critical success]

VS:  You bounce a sub-sonic wave pattern against a nearby moon, effectively camouflaging your escape vector.

Terran:  Meebly, get us some beer or something!

VS:  Meebly opens up a panel in the lower back region of the Kristen Bell droid.  Sparks fly.  He closes up the panel.  "Bring us some space beers, KB.  We're thirsty."  She complies, bringing everyone a beer poured into a strange, blue-green rectangular glass.

Akros:  Whoa, that piece of junk actually works!

VS:  "Heck yes she works!  You should see what she can do with her squelch-valve."

________

That was it.  The players told me they had fun.  Maybe we'll pick it up again soon.  Who knows...

Thanks for reading,

VS

p.s.  There's a nice little review of Girls Gone Rogue over here.