Lasers are Red; Harlots are Blue

Running Alpha Blue isn't like running any other RPG.

The Bold Dungeon Space Master has to initiate handjobs and move combat along without it getting all tactical and strategic.  He's got to remember which PC likes to be whipped, which one has X-ray vision, and who's the drug addict.

Earlier this afternoon, I ran a one-hour (90 minutes, as usual) demo game of Alpha Blue on Roll20.

Just like last time, I had all the players list 7 words or phrases to describe themselves.  Actually, some of the players were having a difficult time coming up with 7.  Since this was a quick one-shot, I told them 5 would be plenty.

Lube McFly: a charming and well-connected lizard man private eye drug addict.

Holly Hardbody: a beautiful human pilot sharp-shooter and brawler ex-military.

Trigger: a cyborg techie hacker pilot who wears a cloaking device cloak and has an X-ray eye.

Grodor: a gigantic alien who's loyal, quiet, and likes animals.

The crew of Lady Luck has been hanging out at The Blue Oyster on Alpha Blue for the last few evenings.  Tonight is no different.  The spacers walk into a scene right out of Mos Eisley's Cantina.  Life forms everywhere - drinking, talking, flirting, and doing god knows what in the azure shadows!

Lube McFly heads straight for what interests him - a blue-skinned humanoid female.  For anyone taking notes, this makes the BDSM's life easier and the game is usually more fun for that player because he's pursuing his own agenda.

Holly Hardbody just sits at the bar looking around, having a drink.

Trigger gets insulted by a trio of assholes sitting at the bar.

Grodor either stands there doing nothing or sits at the bar waiting for something to happen.  As I've mentioned in Play Your Character Like A Fucking Boss, being proactive helps everyone (the GM, the player, and the other players, too).  There's nothing wrong with being a wallflower, but you probably won't get much "screen-time."

Trigger uses his cloak to... cloak himself and tricks the assholes into fighting some big badass alien.  A barroom brawl ensues!

Lube wanders off with the blue girl (we never came up with a name for her, so I'm going to call her Zura) where they smoke a hookah.  The hookah comes in three different varieties: mild, medium, and "fuck you up."  They choose the last one, obviously.

Holly gets hit on by some slimy green bug-eyed alien.  She brushes him off.  She gets hit on by a shiny dark insectoid droid.  She brushes him off, too, content to sit at the bar and finish her drink.  So, she doesn't get much "screen-time," either.

Meanwhile, Lube gets a handjob from Zura as she tells him she's looking for a pilot with a ship.  She's supposed to deliver something to the planet Verrada.  Lube tells her that won't be a problem, promising to introduce her to Holly after she finishes.

Zura asks one of her girlfriends to help out.  The human woman leans in.  Zura asks Lube if he wants to give her a facial, jizz on her tits, in her mouth, or wherever.  Lube asks for her to wear glasses and cane him while chastising him for being a "naughty newt."

Trigger uses his X-ray eye to see beneath the clothing of everyone in the bar.  Seeing an opportunity for roleplaying and getting into the Alpha Blue spirit, I (the BDSM) tell Trigger that he sees a hot, gray-skinned, humanoid female with head tentacles who looks like she's enjoying his penetrating gaze.  The two flirt with each other.  She starts massaging him with her boobs.  He decides they should do it right there on the bar.

Lube attempts to shoot his load 20 meters away at a singer onstage.  I rolled; he failed.  His jizz hits a robed dwarf in the back of the head.  The dwarf notices, but doesn't know who did the deed.  Lube and Zura walk up to Holly and talk to her about going to Verrada to exchange blue crystal for credits.

Trigger finishes inside the gray girl he was screwing for an additional 6 temporary Health.

Zura flirts with Grodor, and Holly flirts back with Zura - but before they can go back to Lady Luck, three Federation troopers enter The Blue Oyster.  They're looking for Zura.  Once they spot her, the troopers start firing.

Everyone dives for cover.  That's a smart move, and normally it would give the attackers disadvantage.  But we were running out of time and this combat was coming late in the day.  I improvised, saying the bar was made of cheap plastic and their laser fire was incinerating everyone's cover.

By the end, all the PCs and Zura took a bit of damage.  The troopers were dealt with.  The PCs headed back to their ship.

The funniest bit was Lube ordering a creamy white drink from the bartender (now that The Blue Oyster was in shambles) and telling him to send it over to the robed dwarf.  "Enjoy another!"

Once aboard, Zura opened up a pouch and spilled its contents on the console - several large crystals.  Zura was going to cut them in for 10% of the take, but Lube negotiated 15%... as long as they provided her with armed support during the exchange.

Ending the session, Lube McFly purred, "Blue girl, I think you're going to lead me into all kinds of naughtiness."

Everyone had fun, as did I.  BDSMs shouldn't expect his players to grok Alpha Blue straight away.  There's a learning curve.  The focus is interaction (as opposed to exploration and combat), so players who prefer that mode of play are rewarded while those preferring the other two might enjoy the game less than they would a RPG geared towards exploring and fighting.

There's a chance we could pick up where we left off... never can tell.

VS

p.s.  BTW, there's 17 hours left to back Battle Star Trilogy: Trek Wars.

The Penis Showing Game

At first, I was just going to post this on Draconic Magazine straight-up (you should excuse the expression) because that's where I post all my free/bonus content.

However, this may be a subject that's too touchy even for me... and Alpha Blue.  That's why I'm opening it up for discussion.  Not just to those who play the game and back my Kickstarters (such as Battle Star Trilogy: Trek Wars), but gamers from all walks of life.

Re-watching the raunchy comedy Waiting... last night, it dawned on me that Alpha Blue, or at least one of its many scenarios, could use something like The Penis Showing Game to keep things interesting.

Basically, you try to catch others unawares, making them inadvertently look at your junk.  Then you ridicule them for being a homosexual and get to kick them in the ass (the number of times depends on how complicated the "exposure move" is).

Instead of free ass-kicks, characters would get something else.  Maybe temporary Health or a chance to Steal the Spotlight or something completely different.  I'll need to work on the details and playtest it before putting it one of the Battle Star Trilogy: Trek Wars adventures.

Perhaps, this is a popular game on a particular planet.  Maybe this is something the Federation has instituted in order to keep up morale or distract from lackluster policies?  In the end, the reason doesn't really matter.  Fun is the most important thing - and the dumb, inappropriate, gross-out humor of The Game is what will generate this particular fun... one hopes.

I'm 43 years old, so old school comes naturally for me.  I like things vintage, for the most part, and the discrepancy between what's acceptable today and some bygone era fascinates me.  Now, you wouldn't normally think of a 2005 movie as old fashioned or out-of-date, but that's probably how it looks to us in 2018.

Yes, terms like fag, faggot, meat gazer, etc. are potentially offensive and frowned-upon in our over-sensitive and politically correct world.  I don't have anything against any sexual proclivity or lifestyle choice that happens between consenting adults.  Neither do I have anything against ripping on people for liking a certain thing or being a certain way.

I don't want to offend anyone.  I don't go out of my way to offend anyone, either.  However, sometimes I say or do things that are "offensive."  People don't have a right protecting them from potential offense, and yet, in this day and age, claiming a state of offendedness can be politically expedient. Victims seem to have more power at the moment, but I'm sure the pendulum will swing the other way sooner or later.

Can't please everybody. That's part of our world, part of being human.  It's a catch-22 wrapped in a mobius strip that flows like a snake we ride through the velvet goldmine.

In any case, if you have a comment to make, I'm listening!

VS

Alpha Blue session report - Ta'andor Rising

I ran another one-shot (actually part 1 of 3) of Alpha Blue last Friday night.  This was a playtest session for my current Kickstarter campaign Battle Star Trilogy: Trek Wars.

We started things off with character creation, but unlike every other session... things went a little differently.

Five players, three hours, and fast times at Ta'andor galaxy...

• Alpha Blue has its own "what's going on?" info-crawl at the bottom of every display screen (including ships refueling in the space station brothel's hangar), allowing patrons to hear about events, news, promotions, specials, sales, and hooker availability at a moment's notice.
• The crew of The Stargazer decided to crash the Miss Ta'andor Bikini Contest.  Bribing the humanoid shark doorman.
• On the way, drugs were purchased, imbibed, and bought in bulk!  Also, spare starship parts were ordered.
• After choosing three teal-colored women (who were all half-sisters to each other), their pimp required extra payment.  He was poisoned and the PCs got out of there quick - but not before grabbing the pimp's room key.
• They robbed the pimp's room and grabbed a blu-ber that was waiting for them.  Two lifeforms were having sex in the backseat.  Hung-Solo joined in.  He wanted to "wash of this stank."  Luckily, there's an app for that.  The blu-ber's driver hosed his mega-penis off before they stopped at a checkpoint.
  
• They bribed the security officer to let them into the hangar, even though they looked just like the suspects' descriptions.
• The pimp had a cache of supplies and information on Ta'andor Prime - a planet at the center of the galaxy that was rich in blue crystal.  Many factions poised to exploit the planet, but so many that it's turned into a deadly competition.
• The PCs were allowed to enter the Pleasure Seekers of Ta'andor faction and hired to collect arms from the Mutant Death Squad faction and bring it back to them.
• I learned what "ruggedized" means... as in, that pleasure droid should be ruggedized if she's going to hold up on a deep space voyage with these spacers.
• They set off for a planet in that sector of the galaxy, but had to get through Krylon space first - and they were attacked by two Krylon raiders.  The PCs evaded the enemy ships instead of being destroyed.
• After the arms deal, they landed on Ta'andor Prime and grabbed the dead pimp's loot.  

While this session was low on sexual activity (Samuel Jones had some off-camera stuff with the teal "ship's entertainment" who had nice hands) and non-starship laser battles were noticeably absent (I'm pretty sure that's never happened before), it was awesome. 

I got to break out the new map of Ta'andor galaxy!  Oh yes, and my wife bought me LED candles for Christmas, so I got to use those.  About a dozen different colors to choose from and they work on remote control.  I used them during the session, but could have used them more... pink for when the sex happens and red during ship-to-ship combat.

Session #2 won't happen for another month.  Though, I'm interested in running some quick demo games on Roll20...

VS

Ta'andor Galaxy

I've got +MonkeyBlood Design (Glynn Seal)'s map(s) in hand!

A laminated one for me (my players spill a lot of soda and the occasional cocktail or beer) and three vinyl "outdoor banner" maps (that can be easily rolled up and shipped) for Kickstarter backers.

Yes, Battle Star Trilogy: Trek Wars is ongoing... support your local independent space opera smut-peddler!

The maps are 44" x 34" and represent the greater part of the Ta'andor galaxy.  There's humor, well-worn sci-fi cliches and homages, as well as, good old fashioned sleaze.  This hex-map will be accompanied by pages of random tables.  The Bold Dungeon Space Master (BDSM for short) can whip up an entire night's gaming - or even a campaign - with nothing but the map and a few rolls.

The adventures will be equally awesome!  Now that we're nearing another stretch goal, there will be 4 short scenarios - each an engaging and wild ride through contested Ta'andor.  Why is it so valuable?  What makes Ta'andor Prime the most precious and dangerous planet in this quadrant of the universe?  Together, all this forms a unique setting.  Apart, these scenarios and random tables are great for idea mining, one-shots, convention games, or stringing loose sessions together just to see what happens next... sandbox style.

Alpha Blue doesn't get the mainstream press like a lot of other sci-fi RPGs.  That's ok.  I'm well acquainted with the dark alleys and gutters, the red-lit flop houses and dens of iniquity.

I ask you, my fellow libertine gamer, to help spread the word.  Our sleazy shadow is growing.  Soon, you'll be joining us in the space champagne room.  A couple bounty hunters and a pleasure droid assassin are playing pink-pong over in the corner.  I'm talking to a scaly stripper who knows an ace pilot down on his luck.

Party's just getting started, spacer.  Bring a friend or two.  Normally, it's 10 credits at the door... but the first time's always free.

VS