With all this pandemic going on, getting a group together to play frontally is nearly impossible! Miraculously, Daniel, a dad of a boy in my kid’s class, managed get three other geek dads together (including me), all living in the same block, all veteran players of RPGs, to play weekly for the last two months. Against all odds, I know.
Daniel was even gracious enough to write a summary of all the sessions we had until now! Though the summary is in Hebrew, I used Google Translate to convert it to English. I edited it a bit too. It’s not the best of translations obviously but you can get most of it I’m sure. Thanks a lot Daniel!
UPDATE: The next session report is available here: Salvage Session #2 Report
Prior to Session 0
Before we actually met for the first time we all had a long Whatsapp discussion about what kind of game, genre and story we are looking to tell together. First thing we decided is: Not Fantasy. Obviously nothing against the genre, just that as veteran players, we all wanted something different. Second thing we decided is: Survival is an issue in the game world. The players actually wanted some place where counting how much money and food/water you have left is crucial. And also something epic, but not very long. We already decided that I will be the GM using the Genesys RPG system and after going through several available world settings, we decided that Salvage fits us like a glove. We are also using the sourcebooks Android: Shadow of the Beanstalk and The Genesys Expanded Player’s Guide for additional talents, vehicles, gear, etc. where appropriate.
Session 0 Report
Google Translate section starts here. This is a link to the original posts in Hebrew: https://tinyurl.com/yyx726mz
Somewhere in the future, on the world of Omega…
Tonight we begin a new adventure in the Salvage world setting using the Genesys system.
So I thought it was an appropriate time to introduce the characters, especially since our GM did a stunning graphic design 😻
Ho’led – Human Duster
Ho’led (Mole in Hebrew) is a third generation Duster Actual. His grandfather was a senior government official in Petra, but was expelled long before Ho’led was born. The family mythology is that he was wrongfully accused of destroying the ship’s navigation systems, which caused everyone to find themselves here on Omega. Yet the family shows no signs of a Nome hereditary (at least until now …).
Ho’led grown up on the feeling that he needs to avenge the family’s name and find his rightful place back in the Hold, and with a slightly exaggerated sense of self-worth, he is special and destined for greatness. In the meantime he earns a living as a scraper like his father before him.
Jericho Lyons – Nome Counselor
Jericho Lyons is a Nome from Valkyrie, who spent most of his years as a scientist researching how one of the spacecraft could be repaired to return to space, based on the remnants of alien technology. His wife, Angela, is one of Valkyrie’s most talented surgeons. Jericho took interest in her job when, several months ago, an injured half-unconscious Nome Duster arrived with terrible burns. Angela cared for him and when Jericho helped her – he touched the symbol on the duster’s arm and felt a powerful entity invading his mind — Whether the duster or something else, he does not know, just a powerful emotion of an injured animal in need of healing.
He regained consciousness after about two weeks, when he discovered that he was suddenly able to use mental abilities – able to influence others with psychic powers. Disturbed, he retired to his lab, seeing only his wife and his twins, a pair of known geologists, in order to understand the change he went through and what caused it.
He emerged from his laboratory with a new purpose – rebuilding the spaceship can wait. First, we have to heal humanity and the sick planet they were on. He believes the key would be Dusters and ancient alien ruins.
Jericho said goodbye to his wife and twins, and took the first step on his journey, towards Petra.
Cam – Esso (Android) Investigator
Dr. Janson Lin founded Firewall’s Multi-Science Testing Lab in Petra, nicknamed simply “Multi”. After Firewall officers repeatedly brought back incorrect or contaminated crime scene samples – or no samples at all, he requested Firewall Captain Nick Speer to permit a lab ESSO to accompany field officers. Captain Speer repeatedly denied the request, arguing that Firewall was not a detective agency; its central concern was fighting crimes when they occurred through violent confrontations with criminals in the city’s streets. Eventually, Dr. Lin modified one of his lab ESSO’s for field operations and began sending it out at night to secretly revisit crime scenes and collect quality samples.
He nicknamed the collection unit CAM for Covert Analysis Mechanism. Unknown to Dr. Lin, Cam was now fully conscious and leading a double life. It kept a rented apartment in The Sprawl full of spare parts it had “liberated” from criminals and had begun negotiating with street-level operators to get closer to higher-level operators. Cam’s moral code is similar to Dr. Lin’s: solving serious crimes like murder often requires committing lesser crimes like burglary.
In time, Dr. Lin noticed that Cam was developing a distinct personality and urged it to take the Chanceweather Test and apply for Petra citizenship. Cam passed the test, received citizenship, and quit Firewall to open a private detective firm called Omega Investigative Services. Dr. Lin continues to work for Firewall but is close to retirement. He maintains a small robotics lab in his apartment to fix Cam.
Session 1 Report
The 103rd anniversary celebrations of the landing on Omega were a real holiday in Petra, the central city of the survivors, where the main business of most is finding food for the next day and thinking about how to move forward and join the rich in The Hold. Only a few think of more noble things, and three of them came to the town’s main square to hear Dave Thompson’s (a low level politician) speech on the occasion of the happy event.
The square was bustling with life, stalls and many people of all kinds – Actuals, Nomes, Dusters and even a number of Esso (androids) walked around it. Classical background music from Earth is heard in the background, the song Somewhere over the Rainbow, while waiting for the beginning of the speech and celebrations. When Dave Thompson took the stage, most of the audience was busy celebrating. He spoke impatiently, leaning on the text he had prepared in advance and which appeared on an elaborate tablet. His speech combined self-praise for humanity surviving in Omega despite all the hardships with the threats they have faced in recent years, and his pleas to the audience to be prepared for more terrible blows.
In the audience, Ho’led moved among the people, looking for interesting opportunities, while a few meters away from him stands Cam the Esso, listening and analyzing Dave’s words. Nearby, the Nome Jericho also listened intently to Dave’s words, when he suddenly felt a disturbance at the edge of his consciousness — and a future-vision of destruction and annihilation was revealed to him: A rift in reality appears on the east side of the square! Jericho did not lose a moment and began to shout at the people around him that they must evacuate quickly before the rift appears. Even though a number of people, including Ho’led and Cam, began to evacuate the people – most of the audience was unaware of the impending disaster.
Realizing that in order to prevent a major disaster, a big step had to be taken, Jericho focused his consciousness on Dave, who was busy in the middle of his speech on the security that the Firewall men bring to Petra from enemies at home and abroad. He tried to get Dave to listen to him, and through him to warn the audience, but Dave resisted the foreign consciousness that had invaded his mind and continued his speech. Cam, realizing what Jericho was trying to do, acted differently and more successfully. Infiltrating the stage, he managed to take control of the tablet used by Dave to control the amplification system and using it issued a warning to all present in the square that a rift was about to open in the city!
Panic began to rage among the people, but it seemed that the firewall guards were more preoccupied with the actions of the people who caused the commotion – and moved to stop them. The first of them came to Jericho, who took advantage of his persuasiveness to actually get the guard to join the efforts to secure the square and evacuate the people from there – not one moment too soon!
The air is torn to shreds, while blue-black energy flashes into space, swallowing more and more of the air around the rupture and causing the waves around the square that pushed the people and destroyed the nearby stalls. As the people escaped, a monster emerged from the rift – An Oiler, as the creature was called by the people of Omega, who had heard horror stories about it from researchers and dusters. Transforming to a height of three meters, his arms whipped in all directions, hitting and injuring many people. Ho’led stepped forward, aimed his scrap-shooter at it, hitting with an explosion, but this did not stop it, nor did the shots fired by the firewall guards. The Oiler continued to move forward, with Jericho taking a gamble – deciding to try to use his power of empathy to paralyze the creature. The creature was initially able to resist the influence and he focused on Jericho, pouncing on him.
Cam suddenly spotted a small boy standing in the creature’s path, and leaping forward, rescued him from danger while Ho’led took the opportunity and managed to snipe at what appeared to be the creature’s head. But to no avail – another head appeared elsewhere in the oily body.
After a moment, the Oiler was about to grab Jericho, when it suddenly seemed that Jericho’s psychic power had managed to paralyze it. Ho’led continued to snipe at the creature, while Cam decided to use his valuable sonic grenade to eliminate the Oiler once and for all. With precise aiming, he threw the grenade into the center of the creature’s body – where it was swallowed for a moment and then an explosion shook the square, sending the remains of the Oiler everywhere.
The crowd continued to rage everywhere, which gave Ho’led the opportunity to try and locate a number of valuable remains in the ruins created at the site – after all, which Duster would give up such a rich loot that falls into his lap? Cam also found loot, but of a different kind – he began searching the Oiler’s body, and took a collection of samples for future research. At the same time, Jericho took a deep breath, trying to recover from the great effort he made due to the use of his powers – and realizing that it was a grave mistake to reach Petra without weapons at all. He looked around and found a shock-baton lying on the floor next to a fainted guard.
Out of the rubble around the stage, Dave Thompson emerged whole and without wounds, with his personal assistant and two guards rushing beside him. When he sees the characters, he approaches them, shakes their hand and praises the heroism and resourcefulness they displayed in the face of the rift, and that they should keep in touch. Ho’led took the opportunity to ask Dave for a reward for the heroism they have shown, and Dave agrees, referring them to his office. Jericho, who is not interested in money but is in saving humanity, turns to Dave and declares that they have a common future, and he wants to talk to him later – he asks for a way to contact him directly, and in return receives the contact details of his personal assistant.
While debating how to proceed, the father of the boy whom Cam rescued, an Indian-looking Duster named Ashok, approached them and invited them to his home. There, he served them a delicious dinner, at the end of which he shares a secret with them: on his way back to the city from the last expedition he participated in, he saw a ruin of Onai (the aliens who once lived in Omega, until they became extinct for no apparent reason). He offers to accompany the characters to explore the ruin where there must be great wealth, and perhaps also technological marvels from the past. Ho’led willingly agrees, but asks for more time to get organized – he is sure that he will find interesting things at the ruin. Cam is also interested in joining, to explore and discover new things, and so does Jericho, whom Ho’led manages to convince that maybe at the ruin they will find things that will lead to the salvation of humanity.
The next session report is available here: Salvage Session #2 Report
Salvage: Genesys Sci-Fi Junkpunk Setting - Fantasy Flight Games | Genesys Foundry
Scorching sand hot enough to melt tires. Homicidal alien robots. Wondrous relics buried beneath mountains of junk. It’s all part of life on Omega, the last planet anyone would want to call home. Unfortunately, you don’t have a choice. What life will you salvage from the wreckage? Will you hunt down rusting mechanical monsters? Salvage valuable scrap from the wrecked starships of your ancestors? Discover mysterious technology within timeworn alien ruins? How will you build your destiny in this dangerous land?
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