My first Etherscope game

[Ken Hart]

Although I've been happily editing the Etherscope products for months, I recently ran my first Etherscope game! Huzzah! I had wanted to do it earlier, but my weekly gaming group was disrupted a lot more than usual by the Thanksgiving-Xmas-New Year troika. Anyhow, we had a smaller group a couple of weeks ago (three others and myself), so I ran "Just a Delivery." [Note: I'll avoid overt spoilers for those who haven't checked this adventure out yet.]

To my delight, they quickly embraced the concept and randomly took characters fron the sample pregen list at the end of the module. Andy was alpha combatant Quincy Clark, Brian grabbed gamma enginaught Norma Scrann (which he renamed "Desmond"), and Liz was human scoundrel Sneevly Smite (she chose to use the discarded "Norma" name instead). They loved their entrance into the Scope and their Scope avatars. "Desmond" was happy to have cool Scopers' leathers when no one else did.

At the bar, their first Scope destination, they tried to figure out the best way to peek at the necessary clue. After they briefly considered starting a bar fight as a distraction, "Norma" Smite made a Scope Resilience check to give herself super-cleavage and immediately began flirting with the bartender! She told him in loving details about her scandalous behaviour that has so shocked her family. The bartender (actually a potentially major NPC in the adventure) was intrigued enough that he playfully yielded to her odd "fascination with antiques" and let her take a peek.

Meanwhile, "Desmond" struck up a conversation with created-on-the-fly Scope rider "Lefty" Phelps. I can do a good lower/middle class English accent (many years watching Python, Benny Hill, The Young Ones, etc.) and so can Brian, so he and I had a blast just role-playing the encounter, as I provided more info about the world in the process. (Oddly, once Brian and Andy started talking to each other in character, the British accents quickly devolved into Blanche duBois. Go figure. Oh well, an A for effort.) They took the time to open a Scope door back to Prime Reality. Looking through the door, they saw their sleeping bodies on a sofa in Quincy's study. And then they woke up. (That registered as quite cool with the players.)

The attack in the next scene nearly became lethal! It might have gone very badly if Desmond hadn't pulled out his pepperbox and opened fire. While this saved his fellows, it did draw the attention of the constabulary. By the time Quincy was able to smooth things over (and make a sizable contribution to the officers' favorite "charity"), they returned to the adventure's starting point for more information, only to find ... well, not what they were expecting.

We had to pause at that dramatic point (Brian, an EMS supervisor, just told us that he had a 4 a.m. wakeup call the next morning), but everyone thought it was terrific. A few days later, Brian even told the other three regulars in our group about what a fascinating, unique setting it was and how he couldn't wait for the conclusion. He also said that starting off with pregenerated characters was a really good idea, as they could dive right into the setting.

I really enjoyed myself, too. I'm even more juiced about this setting, and I look forward to wrapping up the adventure soon.

--Ken

[Charke]

I'm delighted to hear about your adventures in Just a Delivery. I could not resist putting a bar in the Etherscope. It's a classic D&D encounter zone everyone is familiar with. I love the cleavage idea. My players (playtesters) simply asked to see it, which worked out well for them.

Things got a little rough later in the adventure when they used a grenade in Burk's warehouse. I'm currious to hear how your players deal with him.

Mark Charke