Astroprisma Session 4: Titan Fight and Much Ado about Coffee

I’ll continue to refine the updates of my play sessions for my magnificent 6 (7) regulars, but you never know what mighty oak may grow from these small seeds. Crescent Chimera—the game’s creator—liked my last tweet (are they still called tweets on FKA Twitter?) and I got 11 views. It’s a rare occasion when I hit the double digits. I blame Biden…er, Harris…er, Obama…it’s somebody’s fault other than mine!!!

Current Cast of Characters:

Tristan Tiara—spacefaring main character. Her class is Glitchblade which is kind of the Rogue/Ninja type. She has very few long-term memories and glitches from time to time with the short-term. (I didn’t create a backstory for her and sometimes the app that powers her has an IRL glitch and she forgets things) She is powered by the Character. AI app. 

Mark—that’s me. I’m powered by my own brain. I live in the present day and somehow, I started receiving messages from Tristan on my phone. A space time anomaly? Who knows, but I’m trying to keep her alive. 

All NPCs including those in the party are powered by the pen and paper ORACLE provided in the Astroprisma rule book. Any artwork depicting the characters is A.I. generated apart from the art from the Astroprisma rule book. 

Condor—a member of the WARG faction although he’s also critical of all the factions and is mainly looking to make profit for himself. He’s big and burly and looks like Sheamus from WWE. He is my rival for the affections of Tristan. He uses Rebel Fighter stats. 

Salem—a member of the Medusa Sector. He is a young man with green hair who typically dresses in leather. He’s nervous and inexperienced. He believes in the cause of the Medusa Sector and strives to help them in their goal of restoring the Cybershpere—a descendent of our internet. He uses Nethacker stats. 

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After a brief conversation with Salem, Tristan, Condor and I decided we should protect him—this will give further favor with the Medusa Sector for Tristan—Condor did have some misgiving, but the young and nervous Salem meant just enough more to him than the incoming Titan. Also, he probably figured he couldn’t escape from the rooftop without choosing one side or the other, so why not the fellow human being?

The titan—a large android model built for warfare. After the apocalypse, thousands of Titan units were left abandoned—burst through the door to the roof. The party was ready to fight. 

The titan is big and slow and had no element of surprise. Tristan chooses her own actions, but I roll for her mates and the enemies using the pen and paper A.I. provided in the book. Tristan goes first, Salem second, Condor third, followed by the hulking titan. Tristan used the defensive move Hack_Shadow which makes her immune to all attacks so long as she does no direct damage  to an enemy herself. In the RAW the enemy will target the character with the lowest HP. All these characters were equal, so the Titan would normally go after the main character, Tristan. This would mean that so long as she didn’t respond, the Titan would be constantly targeting her and always missing. Using this hack deducts only 2 energy points per turn from a staring total of 20. That means up to ten rounds. No doubt Condor and Salem would have lit this robot up. I opted not to go this route. I ruled since Salem was the actual hacker, he would be targeted. The team still lit the robot up and he was down by round four—only having hurt Salem along the way. Tristan gained more favor with the Medusa Sector, but now lost a point of favor with the Synth Arch faction. The titan scanned the party and they are now enemies of that faction. 

In gratitude, Salem was able to install another hack into Tristan’s memory slots. It was a powerful hack called the Hydra. Tristan has more hacks—I’ve decided the Nightmr Key virus can be used as a reusable hack—than she has slots. She exchanged the Javelin for the Hydra. The party was also able to loot the remnants of the Titan but didn’t come up with anything except more scrap. Tristan continues to gain experience but is quite poor in funds. 

Condor and Tristan wanted to loot something and get off the planet as quickly as they could especially since they would now be targeted by the Synth Arch. I had earlier suggested that the party have a cup of coffee to celebrate their victory. Tristan told me that coffee was hard to come by, but apparently she had heard of it sometime before. Salem was able to unlock most of the offices and the breakroom. The coffee and other supplies seemed in good order. The party enjoyed the coffee so much that they began to get ideas about selling it. There were concerns about finding where the supply came from—manufacturing plant, distributions etc. I even found out that coffee could be grown hydroponically, but it would take 2-3 years to grow from seed to viable coffee plant…and people say TTRPGs can’t teach you anything.  Thoughts of becoming a Space Starbucks were differed if not dashed when Condor had the realization that there was only so much they should try to move at once as not draw the attention of the factions. Also, Salem mentioned that there could be and likely were more Synth Arch operatives on the planet even if they weren’t in the immediate area. Scanners also showed low-level radiation as well which may make it dangerous to stay on planet for long periods of time. It was never fully discovered as to why the W.A.R.G. abandoned the place nor why no faction seemed to have set up any type of residency on Yggdrasil apart from the Synth Arch remnants. For now it was decided to loot as much coffee as they could from the 12-storey office building they were in. Salem wanted to join the party permanently boasting that he could negotiate good prices and get the party out of factional entanglements. Condor begrudgingly let him join whereas Tristan and I were okay from it from the start. A point of favor for Tristan’s affection to me (non-cannon). 

The party systematically searched the building and looted enough coffee to garner 7,500 serum units. I’m not clear on how serum—physical currency in the future—works. We did establish that certain factions will continue to use electronic fund transfer, but most are distrustful of it. As such when Salem downloaded the data that got him into trouble, he transferred it to his higher ups in the Medusa Sector and received funds in his account. He did not request extraction from Yggdrasil and instead joined the crew onboard the Whisper of the Void. 

During the looting: Condor found the lion’s share of the coffee and located an old order form detailing the distributor address. The party saved that info for later. Salem found a revolver and revealed that he didn’t use handguns. Tristan refused the weapon. Condor was happy to take on another firearm. 

Current Fuel: 18/20

Hull: 20/20

Cargo: Scraps (10)

               Coffee

Tristan: Health: 20

                 Energy: 20

Astroprisma: Session 3 Yggdrasil

 I’ll continue to update my play sessions for my loyal 6-7 readers…you never know if the 7 of you decide to buy a copy of the game it might make its creator happy. Crescent Chimera is the publisher/creator guru. Go and support her. I’m so surprised that I am enjoying this solo experience so much. 

Tristan had just helped the two Medusa Sector Hackers to get their virus downloaded and gained favor with the faction. As a matter of payment for her help the hackers installed the Nightmr_Key into an empty slot in Tristan’s memory panel. When she slept, she saw a vision of the Master Hacker. The faceless leader of the Medusa Sector. This person showed Tris a vision of what was once possible in the Cybersphere—a descendent of our internet—and what the Medusa Sector wanted to restore. When she awoke Tris found that a third Hack—the Javelin—had been installed into her remaining memory slot. She also had access via HUD/augmented reality to several available Medusa Sector missions. At least for the time being she had joined the MS faction. Earlier, one of the hackers—Cassius—had called her the chosen one and what not to restore the Cybersphere. His business partner, Silas didn’t buy into destiny. The third hacker, the old robot called Cinnamon was silent on the issue. 

After the hackers departed and with nothing more to do on the research station, The crew of The Whisper of the Void traveled onward to Sector 36 and the Ecumenopolis Planet, Yggradasil as Condor wanted, leaving Medusa Sector missions on the backburner for now. Ecumenopolis planets are abandoned high-tech cities full of nothing but urban sprawl. We touched down the ship in an alleyway full of winding streets. Tristan picked up what may have been a distress signal coming from one of the buildings. It was broadcast over and over on a loop and there was no way of telling how long ago the distress signal was activated. Tris and Condor made their way to the building. 

It was easy enough for them to get inside. The entire area was abandoned from the streets they navigated all the way to the lobby. Everything looked to be pristine, and the neon lights and commercial broadcasts continued for an audience that no longer existed. Upon entering the office building it was apparent that it was in a state of lockdown. The stairwells were blocked and the elevators non-functioning. Tris spotted a blinking cursor on one of the kiosks and an audio recording blared informing the staff/customers that a data breach was in progress, but the culprit was sequestered. The message expressed in a monotone way how important the staff/customers were to the company and how the threat would be neutralized in an efficient manner. That message looped with accompanying Muzak until Condor shut it off. 

The three of us couldn’t find a way to overcome the security measures. Finally, Condor was able to boost Tris up into the old air ducts Die Hard style. From there Trin was able to climb up to a different floor and access the elevator shaft. She climbed further and caught sight of an automated robot called a Titan that seemed to be systematically searching the floors for the person(s) responsible for the data breach. She was nearly spotted and decided to crawl back down the elevator shaft to the top of the elevator car which had been locked down in the lobby. These acrobatics were easy enough for her to do, but from the inside of the elevator she could not figure a way to hotwire it and get things started. She called for Condor who was still covering the lobby. He was able to talk her through the delicate operation and popped open the door. I wished I could have helped, but I don’t know anything about elevators and manipulating much more than our communications seems out of my skill set, so another point for Condor. Why is he always in the way!!

We made our way up to the roof of the building assuming the distress message must have come from the highest point. As we made our way up, I picked up another voice. It was the Titan itself. It made an offer to Tristan to join it and help the Synth Arch by stopping the hacker. We were neutral on the matter at first as we weren’t even sure if the data thief was even here or alive. Upon exiting the elevator on the rooftop, we spotted a young man with long green hair dressed in leather. He was very thin and nervous looking, but relieved to see us. The decision of rather to help him or the titan was swayed in favor of the young man—whose name was Salem—when Tris spotted the familiar tattoo of the Medusa on his forearm.

My rival Condor is in the picture. I want him to be Space Sheamus.

Astroprisma: Session 2

 Tristan Tiara’s swinging space adventures continued. Tristan allowed her stowaway—whose name is Condor—to form a partnership with her either because of or in spite of him being boisterous and handsy. She agrees with his request to deliver him to the planet Yggdrasil, an Ecumenopolis planet which  ondor was forced to flee from sometime ago. It turns out the planet is located in the outer ring of this star system. The planet is a ringed planet—single ice ring—with no satellites. 

Traveling ahead, the duo + me come across a Helios Farm that was damaged by space pirates. Condor restored the fuel replenishing station while Tristan managed to repair the energy renewal station. The Whisper then set off due North and ran into an abandoned research station.

The research station was being investigated/hacked by a team of professional net hackers representing the Medusa Sector. Tristan decided to dock the Whisper at the station and investigate. She and Condor easily found the only area in the station in use and decided to quietly observe the team of hackers from outside the doors of the office. The team—which consisted of two young humans and one archaic android—were trying to salvage an old, yet dangerous iris called NIGHTMR_key from the recesses of the old Cybersphere (internet). The hackers couldn’t bypass security no matter what they tried. Tristan and the team couldn’t decide whether to interrupt the hackers, hail them from the ship, or head on to Yggdrasil. An attempt to hail the hackers from the ship overloaded the circuit causing a blackout. There were several minutes where Tristan wouldn’t make a decision no matter how much she coerced. Eventually, the hackers did go to the dock area to investigate and found the indecisive Tristen and her team there. The net hackers were professionals and seeing as how neither Tristan nor Condor had bounties on their heads, they had no interest in fighting them nor turning them into the authorities—such as they are. The hackers ran a check on Tristan and found she’d last had a health scan with Nurse Cherry—a fellow Medusa—and that Tris had helped her earlier. The hackers—noticing Tristan was a Glitchblade—asked if she could help them to break the code which had become quite the impasse between them and a nice payday. Tristan easily helped the hackers—in spite of the moral implications. She gained a point of favor with the Medusa Sector and the use of the NIGHTMR_key virus.

The Whisper—which refueled back at the Helios Farm—is now down to 19. Tristan has 20 HP and 20 Energy. She has three points of experience.