I have been playing in the sci-fi worlds of my good friend AW (real name hidden as I am not sure if he is happy with me disclosing it) for decades. What started with the original black box Traveller set, our game system rapidly expanded to the house ruled Auslander; an ever improving ruleset that was played for many, many years. As the player base shrank from it heyday in the late 1980s of maybe 30-40 individuals in a variety of capacities (there was a core of around a dozen regular players), the rules gradually became tighter and more focused on what the remaining players, and the referee, wanted. This resulted in the latest iteration of our game that the referee named StarVigia.
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| A bunch of galaxy-bound hitch hikers |
The StarVigia experience slowly moved over from face-to-face gaming to Play By eMail (PBeM or ePBM) as the remaining players either moved away or lost interest, until we were left with a core of only a handful of players. However, this has not deterred our sci-fi gaming and it is still going strong for those of us still playing.
Here is a summarised story (a scenario played out over 50 email returns including the post adventure paperwork) of my latest character Thomas Aquinas. There have been other characters whom I may resurrect from the un-played pile at a later date...
Day 1: Thomas Aquinas left full-time education as soon as he could, but only managed to job-hop around his home town of Greenmeadows before serving a short term in the Marine Corps. Unfortunately, the backwater world of Hope was light years from true civilisation and he didn't learn much in the corps so, as he was still in his mid-twenties, he decided that he wanted to realise his dreams by exploring the galaxy.
He knew a few of the local ne'er-do-wells in Greenmeadows and took up the offer of easy money and a monorail ticket to Expectation, Hope's capital, in exchange for delivering a parcel to one Micah Hart. After a delay caused by a trackside fire, he eventually arrived at his destination late at night. On leaving the station, he glanced up at the newly arriving Star Rider tramper from heavens knew where and sighed wistfully at a life he longed for. Exiting the station, he passed a young couple on a bench who were having an argument over the young lady's flirtatious goings on with a club owner named Glike.
Upon arrival at his paid for, but unseen, apartment in the downtown area, he passed a casual moment's chat with the ex-marine doorman and dropped his kit and the package into his better than expected room. He quickly freshened up and headed back into Startown for some entertainment.
On the way there he noticed a lot of graffiti, most of it the usual inane tags and jibes of local youths, but there were a few too many mentions of someone named Joey to ignore. Expectation, or Startown, was not all it was cracked up to be. It was very poorly maintained, full of grifters and hustlers, and a place to keep your wits about you.
He decided to bar hop for a bit, getting the feel of the place, and made a few acquaintances whilst enquiring about the newly arrived ship, whether there were any jobs going, and who the heck Joey was. As he was about to leave his final bar for the night, the Ice Stallion Cafe, a young grifter named Billy whom he had met earlier, mentioned that he could direct him to one of the Star Rider's crew who might be able to tell him about a job aboard a starship. Aquinas slipped him the promised fiver (slang for a 5 Cr note) for the information and listened closely.
Aquinas got directions to the Clockworx bar and a few more details about Joey - rumour had it that Joey had had an argument with his current girlfriend as she entered the bar only to see him with his arms around another girl. She pulled a gun on him but missed and hit the clock above the bar instead, stopping it dead; a nicely unintended pun on the bar's name - from the barmaid and headed on out.
It only took a few minutes to get to the Clockworx, passing a variety of street urchins and thugs along the way. The bar was crowded but he soon found his intended mark. Vanna initially eyed him warily until the drinks began to flow and the subject of life on a star tramper came to the fore. Unfortunately, there were no jobs going on the Star Rider for a security officer as that post was already filled.
Aquinas thanked him for his time and the drinks, and headed to the bar, above which was the broken clock, where mention of Joey was initially met with a stern silence, followed by stories of Joey and a certain Glike, the owner of a well-heeled bar/casino uptown called Sir Rhino's, for the price of a few drinks. After running that well dry of information, Aquinas left the bar to clear his head and grab some air.
On his way back to the Ice Stallion Cafe he passed a place called the Crimson Club where he saw two bouncers trouncing what was presumably someone who had outstayed his welcome. He furtively recorded the fight but did not get involved.
Riva, the barmaid at the Ice Stallion, welcomed him back and as the night wore on their chatter became more intimate. After closing, she joined him back at his apartment.
Day 2: The following morning, Riva treated Aquinas to breakfast, as he had not had time to stock his refrigerator, and he headed to Micah Hart's office to deliver the package. The package turned out to contain a fake artifact from a distant world, but Hart wanted it none-the-less. After concluding business, Aquinas asked Hart if he could do anything else for him.
As luck would have it, a certain associate, one Thorncal Hetson, needed a bodyguard as his last one had been unceremoniously ejected from a club just the night before. Aquinas accepted the job at 25 Cr per day plus a full week's pay if the job was completed.
The full back-story for Hetson wanting the protection was because a certain gambling event had turned rather sour. Hetson and some of the players at the table won a great deal of money from a college lecturer named Thur Zurki, who lost more than he could afford to pay back from "borowed" college funds. He was found hanged in his room the following day. Two days later another of the players in that same game, Edley Starburn, was also found dead, suspended by his neck. However, the pathologists in the latter case found that he had been strangled prior to being hung. The local enforcement officers were able to link the three persons together, hence Hetson's worry that he might be next. Thur Zurki's brother Maz Zurki was an ex-wrestler with a fast temper, and Hetson suspected that he could have been involved with the second death. The fourth player at the table, Lupo Faweb, was also in the mix as a potential murderer.
Hetson gave Aquinas full details of the job and told him to meet with the client, Hetson, at 6PM. As he was not allowed to wear armour for this role, and he would need a back-up firearm, he visited a local shop and purchased a shoulder holster for his usual side arm and an ankle holster for a new ceramic pistol that should avoid most detectors.
Upon leaving the emporium, he was accosted by a man in a tired-looking brown suit. They sidled off to a local cafe where Gotier Kyenz questioned Aquinas about all of the questions he had been asking about Joey. Aquinas answered truthfully that he was just curious and Kyenz let him go his way with a warning and a contact card just in case he heard anything.
Aquinas headed back to his digs to sort out his suit for the job that night and looked up details on the names he had been given. Armed with those details and a freshly pressed suit he headed to the Ice Stallion to say "Hello" to Riva before he went out for work that night, but she was not in. He was, however, able to chat to the robot barkeep and Billy's girlfriend Judy from whom he made plans at a later date to grab more information about Gotier Kyenz, the private eye.
Hetson met Aquinas in the foyer of The Majestica, an upmarket hotel. He handed over Aquinas' room key and Aquinas went to his room to get ready for the evening. He checked out both rooms via the adjoining door, as well as the fire escape and cameras along the corridors and in the lift he took to get there. Nothing seemed out of place.
The taxi didn't take long to arrive, and on the way Aquinas whilst Hetson filled him in on his role, wondered whether Glike, the owner, was the Glike that the young couple had been arguing about the night before. Upon arrival at the club, Hetson was ushered through quite quickly whilst Aquinas had to give up his gun at the door; his backup thankfully went unobserved. Once inside the club, Aquinas observed Hetson already talking to Glike, who happened to be the same man being discussed the night before; the young woman was also there dressed in a shimmering ruby-red dress whilst her boyfriend scowled not a short distance away.
Also in the club was the sleuth Gotier Kyenz, who seemed surprised at Aquinas's arrival there. After the brief moment of shock faded from Kyenz's face, Hetson interrupted Aquinas and ushered him over to meet his friend Mayvon McAya. After a brief private conversation with her, Hetson motioned Aquinas to the bar for a quick drink. He explained that he had an important job for him tomorrow night.
The return to The Majestica was uneventful, but upon arrival at their rooms Aquinas noticed something out of the ordinary; light was coming from below the door of Hetson's room, and all lights had been extinguished prior to the evening's soiree.
Aquinas motioned for Hetson to go to reception and call the cops whilst he slipped his gun from his holster and opened the door. Sat at the room's desk, playing with a large, dangerous looking knife was Lupo Faweb, the fourth player at the table on that fateful game night. Lupo appeared surprised as he was not expecting Aquinas to enter, but moved his hands slowly away from the embedded knife when ordered to do so.
After asking after Thorn (Hetson), Faweb realised that Aquinas was his bodyguard. During the tense stand off, Hetson returned to the room and said that the cops had been called. Faweb, a known small time crook, got worried so a deal was struck - for information he would be let go, sans weaponry, to try his luck in the upcoming manhunt when the cops find out who was in the room. Faweb spilled the beans on the situation, proclaiming that it was the wrestler brother that committed the murder. Moments after helping him on his way down the fire escape, the cops arrived to take statements. Faweb had a ten minutes start on them.
Day 3: The breakfast in The Majestica was good, but not all that it was hyped up to be. That said, it was paid for by Hetson, and anything free in life is to be seen as a good thing. The day passed slowly with weapons checks, onlin eperson checks and looking up what might have happened to Faweb; there was a bounty on his head for a variety of serious misdemeanours that had occurred at the hotel. A quick afternoon nap and suddenly the taxi cab was outside the building.
The Crimson Club queue was bypassed by Hetson's celebrity status and after a brief weapons and device handover Aquinas was stopped when the hand-held scanner goes off. The bleep came from his wallet; from Kyenz's card that he was given a couple of days ago. There was a tracker in it and it did not go down well with anyone in the foyer. Hetson retrieved the situation by declaring Kyenz's slipperiness and Aquinas promised that he would sort it after the game.
The play went on long into the night but Lady Luck wasn't on Hetson's side this time so he checked out before he began chasing his losses. A taxi was called and weapons and devices were returned on the way out of the club.
As the duo stepped out onto the street and crossed the rainy sidewalk towards the cab Hetson suddenly froze and gaped in fright. Charging from the shadows a huge bulk emerged intent on murder; it was Maz Zurki, the college lecturer's wrestler brother. Shouting that he was going to destroy him, Zurki made a direct line for Hetson. Aquinas drew his pistol in one swift movement and shouted for Zurki to stop. The wrestler ignored him, so Aquinas popped him twice, once in the leg and again in the upper arm. The wrestler fell to the sidewalk unconscious.
Hetson breathed a sigh of relief as the rest of the street cleared. Only the cab driver and bouncers were left after Hetson and Aquinas. Aquinas quickly took command of the situation and got the bouncers to call the cops and an ambulance. The taxi driver hung around for his fare.
Whilst waiting for the cops to arrive, Hetson questioned Aquinas on his involvement with Joey. Telling the truth Aquinas responded that he was only looking into the situation as something to do. Hetson was more on the ball with the situation and proclaimed that rumours were just rumours. Joey was not going to ever be back on the streets after cutting and taking some of the illegal wares he was due to sell on the streets. Being high, he then promptly ran into a starship's plasma drive exhaust as it took off. Aquinas mentioned that he would drop it now he knew and hopefully the trail would then go cold for Kyenz.
After the medi-bot finished first aid on Zurki, he was cuffed and bundled off in an ambulance with a police escort. Meanwhile, piecing together the evidence from witness statements, the cops let the rest of the witnesses on the street go free.
Day 4: Over breakfast Hetson congratulated Aquinas on doing a great job and mentioned that they needed to go see Micah Hart that morning.
Upon arrival, Aquinas was offered a seat and congratulated again for a job well one. He was paid what he was owed for the job and told that Maz Zurki had been arrested for the murder of Edley Starburn and the attempted murder of both himself and Hetson.
As the conversation was about to end, Hart mentioned that due to his great work he would like to keep Aquinas on his books. However, he also knew that he wanted to ply the space ways on a tramper and that there was a potential security role, if he wanted it, on board a tramper that was about to depart Hope very soon. Aquinas affirmed that would be his ideal job but he would still like to stay on Hart's books for future reference.
With an hour to spare, Aquinas returned to his digs to collect his belongings, say goodbye to the few friends he had made at the Ice Stallion cafe and made his way up the departure ramp to The Dependable.
