Eternal Lies - From the Keeper's perspective (Spoilers)

  

I posted a write up on my reflections on Pelgrane Press' excellent Trail of Cthulhu campaign Eternal Lies back in June. Rich, our Keeper for the campaign, shared his thoughts & reflections more recently in our discussion group and he's kindly agreed that I can share them here.

Clearly, there are spoilers below. 

#RPGaDay2025 - 16 - Overcome

It's RPGaDay season again. Here's a link to the blog post with the current year's prompts.

Today's prompt is Overcome. 

You may have noticed that yesterday, I managed to give Deceive number 16. I'd love to claim that was deliberate but it was totally an accident. Anyway, that's fixed and hopefully it won't break any of the permalinks.

I think that longer form campaigns give you a better opportunity to feel like you've overcome something. Sure, one-shots are brilliant and, as a player, you can pull off amazing things with stories to tell, but there's something about the extended game that makes it mean more.

Some examples.

At Longcon 2016, I was fortunate enough to play a truncated version of The Dracula Dossier over a weekend. Although the game was short compared to how the campaign could play out, it had the space for highs and lows, for terror and success. At the end, when we killed Dracula, it really felt like we'd struggled to overcome a true threat and succeeded.

I also played in Dr Mitch's Darkening of Mirkwood campaign, which ran over an extended period, and was a chain of defeats and successes where we managed to lift the Shadow from Mirkwood, leaving it in a better place for the events of The Lord of the Rings. However, it included one of the most terrifying slow motion events of my gaming life, the death march out of Angmar. We'd found ourselves in the Witch King's former kingdom and ended up fleeing, with children we'd rescued, back towards safe havens in Eriador. We had a number of poor rolls - lots of Eyes of Sauron - and found ourselves pursued and accumulating fatigue to the point that we were shedding equipment just to keep moving. We only just managed to get out alive, and it felt like we'd overcome the worst that could have been thrown at us.

I ran Curse of Strahd over multiple sessions and wrote it up here. The player's had a huge challenge to overcome, bring hope to Barovia and getting themselves to the point where they felt that they could overcome Strahd. What amuses me to this day is the fact that they felt it necessary to have a WhatsApp back channel without me where they plotted how they could overcome their Vampiric enemy. I'd initially felt it was a joke, but soon realised that it was very real. I think that they definitely had a feeling of overcoming despite great odds against them at the end.

Finally, at Longcon 2025, I ran both parts of the Stormbringer epic campaign Stealer of Souls & Black Sword. The end point of the campaign saw one of the characters seeking vengeance and facing off with Elric over the death of her father, his soul stolen by the demon sword Stormbringer. Somehow a path was found that didn't end up with what would have been an otherwise inevitable death. The gave a real feeling of success, and the character definitely overcame her likely fate.

I do think that the longer form game lends itself to a stronger feeling of having overcome something significant.

16th August 2025

#RPGaDay2025 - 15 - Deceive

It's RPGaDay season again. Here's a link to the blog post with the current year's prompts.

Today's prompt is Deceive. 

This is an interesting one. I'm a huge fan of character vs character conflict, especially in one-shot convention games, as it makes the players really devious and interactive. However, I have shifted in how I do this. Mostly, the motivations and agendas were hidden, which meant that what happened often came as a surprise. The players would be trying to covertly deceive each other and gain the upper hand. I've written scenarios with a single player having a covert mission that puts them at odds with the rest of the group, and they've mostly gone down well at the table.

I have a Dune hack of Conspiracy of Shadows that plays out the events at the start of the first book, with one of the characters randomly assigned the role of traitor (which is kind of fun, as Paul Atreides can have that role). This was run using the 'blood opera' mode for the game, which is built around relationship maps and backstabbing. 

These days, I'd feel obliged to call out that there were hidden agendas and potential character-vs-character action, because I've become aware that it can cause upset and reduce enjoyment when people stumble into this kind of thing and don't like it. It's not everyone's cup of tea. 

I don't believe that you should ever have player-vs-player (PVP) in a roleplaying game; as a GM you need to be really clear that this is all about character-vs-character. Roleplaying is far more personal in its nature that a video game, and the danger is when people start to take things personally. My experience is that you tend to get a better atmosphere and more enjoyment at a table when the GM has called that out at the start.

I'm also a big fan for making the scheming open at the table; not everyone loves that, but it can make for a more fun story when things are played out so the player is aware, but the character doesn't know that they are being deceived or plotted against. The character may get stabbed in the back, but the player can see it coming.

Some games do deception overtly; Alien is a good example of this. Each character has a hidden agenda, which will change as the scenario develops. That change is usually a complete surprise, and is a tool for the GM to drive interaction. However, the setting is built around paranoia and distrust, and it's open from the start of the game that anyone could have an agenda like Ash or Burke, something at odds to the survival of the group.

In conclusion, I like games were there is an opportunity to deceive, but I prefer it to be open and the table to be aware that it could be happening. I also think the GM needs to be clear at the start that it is character-vs-character, not player-vs-player.

15 August 2025

RPGaDay2025 - 12 - Path

It's RPGaDay season again. Here's a link to the blog post with the current year's prompts.

Today's prompt is Path. 

There's an element in game design that really turns me off, partly because I've increasingly lost interest in complicated mechanics and minutiae, something that my younger self would have lapped up.

Hang on, you say, but don't you love Traveller?

That's definitely a "Yes, but..." response. Traveller hides its complexity in procedural subsystems, which are mostly pretty logical. The character generation has pretty much everything you need for any character across two pages for each type, in clear step-based tables. Starship design is a menu-based system (you don't have to use formulae for power points and more these days) and there's a variety of spreadsheets out there that make it really easy to do. The task system itself is simple and elegant (although I prefer the more precise way that it was done in MegaTraveller and the DGP Task system for Classic Traveller). There's a clear and simple path through each of these processes.

So what do I mean?

I don't like the legacy of D&D3e with the whole process of feats and paths to create the optimum character. This continues through to the current design. I really don't want to read through lots of lists of things that are usually presented in text blocks with the mechanical impacts hidden away. I tend to skim them or phase out when reading because I find them tedious. Same with bestiaries and spell lists.

I loved the simplicity that Cypher presents itself, both in character generation and the game engine itself.

I am an adjective noun who verbs.

And then you hit pages of details - the paths that characters will develop on - behind all that which just lost my interest. It took me a while to realise that as a GM I could just skim this and hand it over to the players. I ended up doing the same with my D&D5e campaign. The players took this on.

I get lost in the trees and can't see the path through the forest as a result.

And yet I know this kind of detail and options give some people a lot of delight. Several of my friends love to go through this in detail and build their perfect, optimised character. To them, this approach gives a clear path to the character that they want.

Perhaps it's a legacy of my earliest games being Chaosium's BRP-based games and Traveller? They didn't have the same kind of progression. BRP was based on skills through experience and training and Traveller, well, once you generated a character, that was pretty much it for development originally. Their core engines were simple.

And yet, I really enjoyed running D&D5e and I've actively considered using Numenéra for running the Ultraviolet Grasslands.

12 August 2025

#RPGaDay2025 - 9 - Inspire

It's RPGaDay season again. Here's a link to the blog post with the current year's prompts.

Today's prompt is Inspire. 

When I pick up a roleplaying game and read it, I need it to inspire me if I want to run or play it. When I'm reading a book, I get what I can best describe as the 'GM tingles'. This is usually triggered by something within the game or the scenarios that excites me, meaning I want to explore that situation or idea.

At the moment, I'm reading In Nomine with a view to running it at Furnace. This has been mainly driven by a fantastic experience around the time that the game was originally released when my friend Ric ran a short campaign focused around the Northern Ireland peace process. It allowed us to explore the motivations of angels and devils against a very real backdrop that meant a lot to the GM as he has a heritage from Northern Ireland. I've always wanted to explore this further.

Had I not got this past inspiration, I'd have probably given up on the idea, as I found the first part of the book pretty tedious. The core rules are pretty verbose (but simple), the kind of thing that turns me off. However, I've just hit the part about the motivations of angels and archangels and all of a sudden I'm excited and inspired. There are tensions between them that are begging to be explored. 

I mentioned in yesterday's post about things that I wanted to explore in some Traveller adventures, and it works in similar ways in published materials too. What are the gaps and tensions that call out to be explored?

Similarly, a splat-book with details for everything doesn't inspire me. Give me gaps and conflicts to explore. If you try to sell me your game on page count, I'm probably not your target audience.

What inspires you when you and makes you want to play or run a game?

9 August 2025

The Dying Earth Revivification Folio Cribsheet

At Furnace last year, I ran Pelgrane Press' Dying Earth roleplaying game, using The Dying Earth Revivification Folio, which is the completely compatible but updated set of rules based on the Skulduggery RPG which was spun out of the original Dying Earth Roleplaying Game that was Pelgrane's launch product. 

As usual, I handled learning a new system by creating a cribsheet for quick reference at the table. Here's a link to it on Google Docs. Feel free to comment with any corrections or improvements.

I would observe that the game captures the feel of Jack Vance's novels really well, but it does mean that the players need to be willing to embrace the whims of fate, much like the protagonists in the novel. Hopefully, that fate will avoid Chun the Unavoidable. However, he is, as the name says, unavoidable. Just don't have a dismal failure...

9 August 2025

#RPGaDay2025 - 8 - Explore

It's RPGaDay season again. Here's a link to the blog post with the current year's prompts.

Today's prompt is Explore. 

Recently, my forever game Traveller has started to produce some great campaign supplements for exploration, at a completely different scale to what it's done before. Deepnight Revelation is an epic, multi-decade exploration campaign into the unknown to understand an interstellar phenomenon. It's probably the closest Traveller has got to Star Trek in feel since it came out. Rim Expeditions does something similar, but different, allowing you to play Solomani Explorers pushing out towards the rim of the galaxy (or at least our spiral arm). 

What was really different for both of these was that they looked at exploration at a high level, whereas previously Traveller had focused at the macro-level, zoomed in on a planet, or an artefact, or a ship. The way that it was previously done in Shadows or Mission on Mithril was great for getting to the immediacy of a game, but there was not necessarily a long term driver. Perhaps the mini-campaign sets like Tarsus and Arrival Vengeance got closer to this (and the latter is definitely a voyage of discovery across the shattered Imperium), but it wasn't so deliberate. The new approach is a definitely aimed at a multi-year voyage of discover, boldly going into the unknown (or partly known).

However, I've written pretty extensive reviews of Deepnight Revelation and Rim Expeditions, so I don't propose to go back to them. The links will take you to them.  It's worth adding that I've since read the extra six volumes beyond the core box set for Deepnight Revelation and I would consider them essential if I ran the campaign.

There's another aspect to explore when it comes to roleplaying games. Inherently, roleplaying games give you the chance to be someone else and explore their worldview and how someone very different to yourself would react. Yes, it will always be a stretch to really push away from your own world-view, but it's fun to try. Many of the scenarios that I've written have been triggered by the thoughts of 'wouldn't it be interesting to explore that'?

Delta 3 is Down* was written having read the GURPS Traveller Zhodani Aliens Volume, which made me wonder what a Zhodani crew would make of the Imperials if they were forced to interact with them. 

Cold Dark Grave* was partly about exploring a close family business and how the interactions would play out if they found themselves doing something potentially illegal but with the potential to save them from bankruptcy. How far would they go?

Wolves at the Door** was all about playing teenagers and exploring how they would react if their world was threatened by raiders. Could they be Spielberg style heroes? 

The joy of roleplaying games is that they let you try something different, to explore the character you have created and also the situation that you are in. We can do things we couldn't in real life and explore the consequences. I think that's what has kept me roleplaying for forty years; the chance to explore something different from the mundane.

8 August 2025

* Both of these are currently being reworked into Mongoose Traveller second editions with BITS.

** There's also another plan to bring this out with another Traveller publisher.

#RPGaDay2025 - 7 - Journey

It's RPGaDay season again. Here's a link to the blog post with the current year's prompts.

Today's prompt is Journey. 

You might be relieved to hear that I'm not planning to link to Traveller again today. I did consider discussing Rim Expeditions or Deepnight Revelation, but I think that perhaps there are other prompts coming up where they would fit better...

Journey takes me right to Tolkien. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings both have journeys at the heart of their stories, but editions of the various Middle Earth related roleplaying games didn't put them front and centre of the game, and as a result were something less than they could have been. The One Ring makes travel, and the finding of refuges and places of sanctuary outside the wilds, really important and as a result, feels much more like the fiction it seeks to emulate.

Yes, earlier takes on Middle Earth had wonderful mapping and fantastic gazetteers (I'm especially thinking of Iron Crown Enterprises' work here) but somehow it was incidental. 

In The One Ring, travel will bring fatigue, encounters and threats. Outside of the points of light, Middle Earth is a dangerous place, and each members of the party will make rolls to progress safely. One character will take the role of the guide, leading the fellowship on its travels, and using the all important Travel skill. Others will be the Look-Outs, rolling Awareness to keep watch. Scouts will roll Explore to find trails and set up camps. Finally, the Hunters will find food in the wild using the Hunting skill. Not everyone will have to roll every part of the journey; who it is depends on the event that happens.

The path is planned on the hex maps and the distance you travel without an event is determined by the Guide's skill roll. 

Events will affect one of the roles, who will have to use their skill to try and avoid consequences. The Loremaster (GM) is given guidance on the types of event that could happen but it is tailored to the fellowship that is making the journey. Events will typically cause fatigue, but they can also bring dread (through shadow points) or restore hope. You can also be injured. Having pack animals will reduce fatigue along the way. 

It's a mechanistic approach but it works really well and uses a simple procedure to manage the process. 

When we played The Darkening of Mirkwood, journeys across the forest were very dangerous until we helped restore the Dwarven Road, and crossing the mountains even more so. We had one journey across what remains of Angmar where we ended up dumping lots of equipment as we were so fatigued. When we finally emerged into Eriador, we were incredibly relieved. The loss of fatigue really drives tension.

If you fancy a more generic version of this, Cubicle 7 took the mechanics that did for the first edition's D&D 5e line and turned them into a decent book called Uncharted Journeys, which I recommend.

In summary, I love the way that The One Ring has made each journey an important and memorable part of the game, using simple procedures that evoke the feel of the books that the game seeks to emulate.

7th August 2025

#RPGaDay2025 - 6 - Motive

It's RPGaDay season again. Here's a link to the blog post with the current year's prompts.

Today's prompt is Motive. 

I could make this about Traveller again? Oh, go on then.

Traveller introduced many different things to the roleplaying game sphere, but Adventure 11: Murder on Arcturus Station did something that has seldom been adopted elsewhere. It presented a murder mystery on a lonely mining space station, along with a great selection of non-player characters. all with motives for murdering the victim. Released in 1983, there weren't that many investigative games out there yet, but this adventure dared to go beyond a simple chain of clues.

Instead, it tells you how to build your own murder mystery, allowing you to tailor the challenge to your players. You can have a simple mystery with three suspects, or perhaps all nine if you love complexity. Each suspect has their game statistics, reasons to be involved, known and hidden background, a clear Motive which can be discovered, and then the means. There are options given for how they could kill the victim (a somewhat obnoxious hard-nosed businessman) and also how they could be a suspect. Each has an alibi with reaction modifications depending on which lines of questioning are taken. There's also some final notes of elements that may be useful to the referee.

You can even set up a character as a murderer. This requires some work between the player and the referee before the game begins. There's some guidance on how to handle this (by encouraging the party to split and notes about information being passed around as a norm). The starter for the adventure gives all the characters a reason to dislike the victim (he refuses to pay them for their previous work), so there's some motive there already. 

Mongoose re-released this adventure with a prequel (the job that they don't get paid for) as Mysteries on Arcturus Station. The new prequel is a more traditional investigation, but the second adventure is pretty much the same as the original, except that it gives a way to have a player as the murderer without prior collaboration, which I think would work very well. However, they won't know their motive unless they solve the reason for the murder.

So there you are. A flexible adventure, bundled with Motives.

7 August 2025

#RPGaDay2025 - 5 - Ancient

It's RPGaDay season again. Here's a link to the blog post with the current year's prompts.

Today's prompt is Ancient. 

Another Traveller reference, I'm afraid. 

Traveller's setting makes reference to 'the Ancients', an alien civilisation of great power and technology which wiped itself out some three hundred thousand years earlier. When I came across the game, it resonated with me because of the many Andre Norton books that I'd read prior to discovering roleplaying, particularly the Solar Queen series. In those, there is a similarly lost and mysterious civilisation called 'the Forerunners', which served a served a similar plot purpose. I've no doubt that this was an influence on the game.

That sense of mystery and wonder was also there in one of my favourite books, "Rendezvous with Rama", by Sir Arthur C. Clarke, which has a crew exploring an ancient alien vessel which was passing through the solar system. Alastair Reynolds also did this really well with his Revelation Space series, although opening the mystery box results in dire consequences for humanity.

Babylon 5 also had a similar theme with ancient civilisations with an ongoing war.

My heretical thought on the Ancients in Traveller is that they lose some of the reason that they fascinate once you know the story. Discovering the answer to the mystery makes it mundane. That's the paradox; we want to know, but when we find out, the magic goes away.

5 August 2025

#RPGaDay2025 - 4 - Message

It's RPGaDay season again. Here's a link to the blog post with the current year's prompts.

Today's prompt is Message. I've answered this previously in the 2020 RPGaDay.

I'll do something different this time. My forever game, Traveller, had a message on the box set front cover which still resonates with me today.

This is Free Trader Beowulf,

calling anyone... 

Mayday, Mayday... we are under attack... main drive is gone...

turret number one not responding.. Mayday. .. losing cabin pressure

fast... calling anyone... please help...

This is Free Trader Beowulf...

Mayday...

It still sends a shiver down my spine when I read it, as the message sits there, pregnant with potential for adventure.

Much later, GURPS Traveller did a lovely thing with it's advertising campaign which went something like 

Hang in there Beowulf... Help is on the way...

That was a clever play on things at the time as Traveller was between publishers, and the GURPS edition reverted back to the classic / golden era before the Imperium is shattered by the second civil war as described in MegaTraveller.

That's my favourite gaming message.

Books in July 2025

July was a quiet month for reading for me. Lots going on with work and some time spent on writing projects that nearly made me miss my ' read every day' objective.

I read five books, for a total of 1,788 pages. That brings me to 70 books and 17,627 pages for the year. This month I read two non-fiction books, one roleplaying book and two novels.

The non-fiction books were The CIA Book Club by Charlie English and Liftoff by Eric Berger. The former was a fascinating tale of how the CIA funded and helped organise the sharing and sale of literature that was banned in the communist block. The story is focused on Poland, explaining how vital the sharing of literature and ideas was to Solidarity's success. 

Liftoff was a gripping tale of how SpaceX transitioned into becoming the leading provider of rocket launches. It was gripping, tense, and reminded me of why I respected Musk's drive (although I really dislike his management approach and values) and the achievements that were made. Unfortunately, that's all tainted by his foray into politics. However, this book captures the feel of a start-up business really well.

The roleplaying book was Tales of the Old West, which is the first historical take on a Western based roleplaying game. It uses Fria Ligan's Year Zero Engine and is really nicely written. I hope to run this at Furnace in October. Having run and played YZE games before, this looks like a great one.

I revisited the past this month with Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave. This is her Romano-British Arthurian Merlin trilogy's first book. It has a special place in my heart as my Grandmother introduced me to it and I have read it multiple times. This was a return after more than a decade, and it was as wonderful as ever. I recommend this series if you fancy something Arthurian but a bit different. The series definitely influenced the way that I ran the Pendragon roleplaying game in the past.

Finally, I read Paul Vidich's The Poet's Game, a modern day spy story set mostly in Russia and the US. A former spy finds that he cannot escape his past as he's asked to help make contact with a former asset by the CIA. I found this a bit of a page turner, and look forward to the next book from the author.

I'm on holiday in August so the reading rate may accelerate again.

3 August 2025

#RPGaDay2025 - 3 - Tavern

It's RPGaDay season again. Here's a link to the blog post with the current year's prompts.

Today's prompt is Tavern.

Tavern's don't immediately spring to mind when I think of gaming, but I do have to admit that my recent foray into Bree and The Prancing Pony during LongCon was a delight (but real ale lovers should also check out The Lamplighter Inn at Straddle, which had a much more relaxed feel). The gaming purpose that they've traditionally served was covered by Patrons for me. The venue didn't matter, and if I needed one quickly then there was always 101 Rendezvous to find somewhere to meet. 

The Tavern that I associate with gaming is the Gaming Tavern. This is an old-style Bulletin Board Forum that's mostly focused on roleplaying games but with space to discuss most things. It's lightly moderated (I'm part of that group now) and tends to be slower than the conversation in spaces like Bluesky and Mastodon. Mostly, I prefer it to the more social media as I can engage with it at my own pace and I never get that anxiety that I'm missing stuff when I get behind on my feed. Then again, I prefer blogs to YouTube videos so perhaps it's just a generation thing.

The saddest thing was when we had to close to new memberships because of the UK Online Safety Act. That requires age verification to be carried out but didn't put in place anything to do this pragmatically. If you're running a free service, then it's not easy to make that viable. We do still admit new folks, but generally that's because we've met them at conventions and have verified the individual's age. 

Anyway, that's my favourite Tavern.

#RPGaDay2025 - 2 - Prompt

It's RPGaDay season again. Here's a link to the blog post with the current year's prompts.

Today's prompt is Prompt.

Well, first of all, you'll have to forgive me if not all my posts during RPGaDay2025 are prompt. Sometimes they need a little thought, sometimes real life will get in the way of them.

There's a thing in the OSR (and in that, I'd include early editions of Traveller) where a random table is suggested for encounters, events and more. I've only ever really used these for encounters (typically because they're there in a scenario, in D&D or early SF adventures like Mission on Mithril or Shadows) but I do like a good book of them because they're wonderful idea seeds for a GM. Reading through them gives prompts to your brain on how you could flavour or pitch an adventure.

Any of Sine Nomine's 'Without Number' books are great for this (and they have free versions), and there's other great material out there like Cubicle 7's Uncharted Journeys or Mythmere's Tome of Adventure Design. I have far too many of these books, and mostly they sit there, pregnant with potential for adventure. But when something emerges from them, it's wonderful.

These kind of books and lists are fantastic prompts for the mind. Anyone got any recommendations for others?

2 August 2025

#RPGaDay2025 - 1 - Patron

It's RPGaDay season again, so I'll give it a go. Here's a link to the blog post with the current year's prompts.

Today's prompt is Patron.

In many ways, this is an easy one to talk about, as the word 'Patron' in a roleplaying game context immediate takes me to my forever game, Traveller. I long loved the utility of the Classic Traveller supplement, 76 Patrons. This is a fantastic collection of short plot hooks with a variety of options for resolution that could easily fill in a full play session. I guess that they'd be referred to as adventure seeds or hooks these days. When I was running a sandbox style merchant campaign in the Spinward Marches (broadly influenced by Twilight's Peak and others), I'd regularly go to this book and JTAS (The Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society) for ideas to slide in around the main plot, and it was rare that they ever let me down as a source of ideas. 

Each Patron encounter was defined by a role for the Patron, the Required Skills & Equipment, and then had two short paragraphs giving Player's Information and Referee's Information. The latter was a selection of options on what was going on, numbered against the roll of a six-sided dice. There weren't always six options, but you always had an option to randomise.

You can still get 76 Patrons from Drivethru RPG.

Skipping forward, I was proud to coordinate the book 101 Patrons for BITS. This was initially designed to replace 101 Plots, but it grew legs. It has a lovely cover by Jesse DeGraff (RIP), and some fantastic guidance on using the 4Ps (Plots, People, Places and Props) when working out a scenario, followed by some lovely work on the 36 dramatic situations (by Andy Slack if I recall correctly). This is followed by 48 Patrons in the same format as 76 Patrons along with 27 situations (again in the same format but not necessarily directly linked to a patron), 6 elaborations and a huge number of 'starport chatter' and 'world seed' entries. It's a really useful book for a Referee, particularly if you're in a hurry. In fact, the whole 101 line takes this approach.

You can still get 101 Patrons on Drivethru RPG, but there's also a bundle with all the 101 books. 

I don't get any benefit if you do pick a copy up, but you'll definitely have a useful aid for running a science fiction game!

1 August 2025

LongCon 2025 After Action Report - The One Ring (spoiler section marked)

I spent the first weekend of July in Sheffield at the Garrison Hotel, at the second of the relaunched LongCon conventions. Last year I had a fabulous weekend running a group through the whole of the Stormbringer Stealer of Souls & Black Sword campaigns using Tripod as the engine, which I wrote about here and here. 

I was pondering what to run this year when my friend and fellow organiser Graham pitched The One Ring. And like that, I decided that I wanted to play. What could be better than a weekend exploring Middle Earth?

This year's event preparation went more easily than the previous years (we failed to take off in 2023, and 2024 was all about getting the systems in place), and we saw more players and interest. At the heart of the organisation are three Google Forms. One manages registration for the convention, the second manages game pitches from GMs and the final form manages game preferences from players. Unlike the other conventions we run (which are all based around three to four hour slots), LongCon focuses on the same group of players playing through an extended campaign over the weekend. Because of this, we allow GMs to preallocate some spaces to players they know, but we also have a semi-random preference based game allocation. 

Once I'd built the sheets, Graham managed most of the rest of the admin, especially the preferences. That was pretty impressive, as he was also preparing a campaign for the weekend too! I did do some more traditional pin badges as souvenirs for people, and also helped source some light-breaking curtains and portable rods that we could use to fit them. We needed the latter because the Garrison has refurbished the space we use and has removed the heavy curtains that were a nightmare to clean for them. As a result, we'd been taping baking paper to the windows to diffuse the sunlight, so a more practical solution was needed, which we've now tested ready for Furnace.

There was a bit of a comedy moment when I asked Graham 'the question' and he wasn't sure. Nothing about getting married, but rather whether we'd remembered to book rooms for the night at the hotel. It was a good thing I did, as this was the first time that he really wasn't sure! Referring to it as 'the question' comes from years of either Elaine or I asking for various Garricons!

Graham hosted a session zero for the campaign which I nearly missed because I'd managed to mute the channel we were using for Discord, but he nudged me and I arrived a little flustered. He'd set this up using Role, a VTT that I still pay for but haven't used recently. However, it reminded me just how great it is on the AV side. I will use it again if I run something lighter.

We introduced ourselves, and my character, a Ranger of the North Captain called Hallas, was created. Graham had decided to run the Lone Lands campaign for the weekend, which was a great call, especially as I haven't read the book for that yet. There were initially six of us, but two had to drop out nearer the event. I especially missed Dr Mitch, who ran the extended The Darkening of Mirkwood campaign for us using the first edition of The One Ring, still one of the standout campaigns that I have played. It would have been lovely to play alongside him again. 

Aside from myself, my fellow players were Simon (who played in my Achtung! Cthulhu campaign) and Kari and Alex (a couple who I'd never met who were delightful company). Simon created an Elven Scholar called Ithildir, Kari had a Hobbit Messenger from the Shire called Bell Bunce, and Alex had a Dwarf Champion from the Blue Mountains, call Ginar. So we could definitely do a joke around 'A Man, an Elf, a Dwarf and a Hobbit walked into a bar...' which we actually achieved twice in Bree. 

I was surprised and very grateful when Alex offered to 3D print us each a One Ring dice tray, which I used all the way through the weekend! It looked fantastic.

We'd agreed to kick off at 0930 on Saturday; it took 20 minutes for us to set up, and then we were away. 

The next section contains spoilers for the Lone Lands campaign.

Traveller - The Jägermeister Adventure - Ep 5 - Firefight at Bay I (Spoilers, AI)

 

We returned to the The Jägermeister Adventure this week and, once again, there were no technical difficulties either with Roll20 or the recording process for tabletoprecorder.com. However, Andy playing Graham's character did confuse the AI somewhat. The session length was once again around two hours.

Characters.

Saul Emzer (Graham) - the only professional bounty hunter in the group, a guild member well aware of his own shortcomings. Saul knows his aptitude is the down and dirty part of the missions. He isn't the brains, and he certainly can't fly a ship, but when the trouble goes down, he's a man of action, and of stealth when needed. Saul has brought the rest of the team together to support him and fill out the skill gaps. He doesn't like to think of himself as the leader, but he's the one with the official guild membership. He's made some big scores in the past.

Gibert Chang (Andy) - hailing from the Meriden system's Harmony habitat, the home of an obscure religious sect, Gilbert sought freedom by joining the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service. He grew up with good understanding of space construction and has supplemented this with a wide range of technical skills, becoming a professional spacer. He describes himself as the potential getaway driver, but is officially the ship's engineer,  and he comes with a broad (but not deep) range of experience and a well-used but cared for vacuum suit called Nadia.

Arturo "Lucky" Javed (Paul) - Lucky's life has been a lot of ups and downs, probably more of the latter than the former. He aspired to be an intelligent agent but was kicked out of that career early on following a serious injury. He then took to a life of petty crime, struggling to make do and stay out of trouble. Eventually, a role came up on a Merchant vessel, but he kept his hand in with the underworld to try and make some money on the side. He knows Gil of old following a job that went sideways. Lucky is the one who is likely to make contact with any criminal elements that the group may need to deal with.

Pen Gata (Neil) - has spent his life in space, with a broad range of spacer skills that means he's the pilot and astrogator. Once again, he's a broad specialist rather than a deep expert. (The character was built with package generation so has a less developed life path).

The Jägermeister - a 100dT Jump-2 streamlined courier capable of 6G thrust, the ship is also their home and Assured Courier's GmbH's main asset. The crew mostly live aboard, as it's a lot more pleasant than the desert world of Ikeran where they're officially based (and have a rented office). The ship is usually located in one of the downport's long-term parkways. She's armed with a single triple turret with beam lasers and a missile rack. 

Session notes.

This was the session where it was all coming to a head. The characters had been hot on the tail of Edric Voss but had just been missing him. I'd worked through Plan B and was ready to let them catch him if they played their cards right, which was quiet a deviation from the core plot as the scenario is written as it assumes that Voss remains in charge of the nefarious conspiracy that underpins the campaign.

That said, I hadn't imagined that the players would be quite so direct. So we ended up with a gunfight in a starship bay. For once, they managed to avoid the downside of the sage advice to never bring a snub pistol to a starship laser fight, but more by luck than happenstance.

Plan B, ultimately, was more simple. The bounty for Voss was for the return of him and the information that he stole. They only managed to secure half the prize this time.

This was also the first session that we played a player down. We'd discussed the August and September period and realised that with holidays it was unlikely that we'd get a full roster, so we unanimously agreed that we would carry on if there was only one player missing. Graham couldn't make this session as he was only holiday. 

The Tabletop Recorder AI got confused when Andy said: Okay. So normally I am Gilbert Chang, ship's engineer. But for this session, I will be Saul Emzer, bounty hunter. Yes. The only one who's actually got a legitimate license to do this stuff.

This rolled through to the summary as:

Brief: Gilbert Chang assumed the role of Saul Emser, a licensed bounty hunter, as they prepared their ship and discussed the mission's logistics. 

Moderate: In a vivid and strategic session, the crew, under the calculated leadership of Gilbert Chang who was assuming the identity of Saul Emser, delved into a tense operation in the cluttered space lanes and bustling ports of Bay. 

Detailed: In the heart of their galactic adventures, the crew found themselves engaged in a strategic conversation, marking plans while attempting to remain incognito. Gilbert Chang, usually the ship's engineer, would this session assume the role of Saul Emser, a licensed bounty hunter. As they prepared for their operation in Bay, they delved into the logistics of refueling their ship and discussed their approach towards a clandestinely positioned bounty.

At the moment, I'm still finding more benefit from having the capability to process a transcript (but I could already do that directly with Audio Hijack itself) than I am from the summaries. The tone and summaries still aren't where I'd like them to be. As usual, I'll do a nutshell summary at the end.

Summary of the Session (lightly edited AI synthesis of the transcript).

The team had established the Edric Voss was likely aboard or about to board the Hirondelle, a Free Trader which had moved its departure to Minerva through to that very night. Their previous legwork had established that it was unlikely that Voss and his crew were actually going to Minerva. Valkos was a more likely target as they felt that Voss wanted to collect something from a facility there, located somewhere near the ruined city of Naggeth.

As they prepared for their operation in Bay I, the team delved into the logistics of refueling their ship and discussed their approach towards a clandestinely positioned bounty. The debate bounced between tactics, with the group opting for a low-profile strategy inside their assigned boundary, contemplating a direct line to their destination. They planned to leave Gilbert with the ship for necessary preparations, while others embarked on the mission. Critically, although they had enough fuel to fly, they needed to take on water and crack it into hydrogen fuel to be able to make an interstellar jump.

Equipping themselves was crucial, as they intended to be ready if the situation escalated into combat. The team parsed through the technicalities of the spaceport layout and the facilities available for their mission near Bay I. They considered the drop points from the air/raft, especially focusing on nearby tree cover ideal for their hideout. 

The discussion then turned towards the ship's capabilities, emphasizing their necessity to refuel at Valkos using unrefined fuel from a risky source if they had to pursue Voss there. As Valkos was a Red Zone and interdicted following Nuclear, Chemical and Biological exchanges, they'd prefer not to have to go there. In fact, it was illegal to visit the planet. 

Discussion continued over the weaponry suitable for their mission, considering the local law levels which restricted weapon types. Saul Emzer was equipped with an array of guns from stunner to military-grade weapons, hidden beneath his trench coat for quick access in emergencies. The crew also talked about their roles during the operation, highlighting who would be the best at flying the air raft and who would provide backup.

As they moved on to the execution phase of their plan, they found themselves navigating challenges with their air/raft, struggling to remain stealth while encountering failed rolls that risked their covert status. The crew's dynamic was tested as they coordinated their efforts to align with their mission objectives, ensuring they were all equipped and ready for whatever awaited them at bay. Ultimately, the team positioned themselves strategically, ready to strike or adapt depending on how the situation unfolded, emphasising the importance of preparedness, cooperation, and timing in the unforgiving expanses of space. In this segment of their spacefaring journey, the crew faced a conflict fuelled by quick decisions and tactical manoeuvres. 

Their immediate focus was on a risky operation to capture Voss, as they engaged in a shootout and attempted to manoeuvre their air/raft to avoid starship gun laser turret fire. Saul Emzer, and his team chose to distract and disorient their enemies with gunfire, not expecting much as their foes were experienced ex-military who knew how to find cover. In the heat of this skirmish, they planned to drive their air raft close enough to ram Voss and bring him aboard. 

Saul, trusting his reactions, tried to implement this plan despite potential consequences to the ship. As Saul managed to approach Voss, he and the crew attempted to subdue him by utilizing stunners — although Saul juggled with the idea of a more lethal approach using a snub pistol if necessary.

Confidently, they planned to drag Voss onto the air/raft and escape, considering potential retaliatory fire from the turret and the ship’s crew who were wearing armour. During this fray, Gilbert or "Gil" contacting additional help to apprehend Voss, playing off the chaos as part of their operation. Aoife Scarlock, another Bounty Hunter, had arrived in the Headhunter, and she was misdirected to pursue the Hirondelle as it lifted, telling her that Voss was onboard. The starships exchanged fire as they climbed into the sky.

The team’s effort culminated in a messy but successful extraction, with the Port Authorities closing in on the Bay as they escaped with Voss in the air/raft which had been peppered with automatic fire. Fortunately, the ship's laser had missed it, and instead shot some of the defenders. The spectacular blast had alerted the emergency services that something was going on. 

The crew discussed and strategised their next moves, considering the implications of their actions and the necessity to deal with injuries and potential repercussions. Ultimately, they pondered the financial and logistical aspects of their mission. 

They contemplated the bounty and how to secure it, discussing whether to deposit Voss in cryogenic sleep in a low berth or place him in a brig, and how to ensure their own safety and operational integrity post-mission. Ultimately they decided that he was too slippery a character and freezing him made more sense.

We left our heroes in their port bay, contemplating whether they needed to pursue the Hirondelle as it probably had the information that they needed onboard, and also scheming about how to play the innocent with Scarlock, should she return empty-handed. Perhaps they could be away before they had that confrontation.

In summary: The crew had established that Voss had likely assembled a squad of Valkosi Souther Veterans, with the intent to carry out some kind of revenge act, by retrieving something located on Valkos close to the city of Naggeth. It looked like they planned to ship out tonight on the trader Hirondelle, which had a recorded destination of Minerva, but had brought departure forward a few days.

They decided that Gil would prepare and fuel the ship (which would take quite some time as they needed to process the fuel that was available), while the rest of the team went to grab Voss. Although they planned to use stunners (which were legal on the world), they did have the gun box in the air/raft that had more lethal options. They planned a sneak extraction.

As they approached in the falling darkness, they managed to spot Voss on the bay, so made in impulsive decision to land the air/raft between him and the Hirondelle - which was clearly planning to lift - and to grab him. They landed, and immediately got into a firefight with several veterans who were armed with SMGs. Fortunately, the structure of the air/raft protected them enough to avoid serious harm. 

Voss was stunned and down (but moving) and Pen and Saul dived out of the air/raft to grab him. As they did this, the ship turret started to power up and a man and a woman on the starship in armour started to threaten the team with Voss. Arturo opened up with Saul's ACR, across the inside of the air/raft and the enemy ducked into cover. Voss told them to leave him, and to carry out the plan, they knew what to do. The woman agreed. The beam laser turret fired, narrowly missing the air/raft but hitting the veteran grouping. 

The Hirondelle lifted, leaving Voss in the crew's hands, and they evacuated the area quickly and stealthily because the emergency services were arriving outside the bay. Somehow they weren't seen. Meanwhile, Gil vectored the Headhunter with the rival bounty hunter Aoife Scarlock onboard after the Hirondelle saying Voss had taken most of their team out and was on board the ship. A ship-to-ship engagement followed.

Onboard the ship, injuries (Arturo) were resolved and a decision was taken to freeze Voss in the low berth. They realised they only had half the bounty, but that was still 50% better than before. They needed the information which was probably aboard the Hirondelle. Decisions were needed. What do they say to Scarlock when she comes back and finds out the Jägermeister crew are alive? Do they pursue to Valkos? And what do they say to the Bulari Down authorities if they come knocking?

30 July 2025 

First Impressions - Keychron K10 Max

I've been intrigued by mechanical keyboards for a while, mainly driven by memories of the original keyboards that I used when I first started computing. Specifically the keyboard on the Video Genie TRS-80 clone, my old PowerBook 190cs and a variety of IBM keyboards from early PCs.

My daily driver keyboard is a Logitech MX S, wireless, suitable for Windows or Mac (or ChromeOS). It feels light and comfortable to use, and it's very quiet. I can use it for work happily and heavily for a day without any issues. That's important, as I managed to damage a tendon many years ago when I was writing a lot of specifications and doing a lot of CAD drawings. The culprit wasn't actually the keyboard, but rather the very strange lumpy mouse that they produced in the 1990s which meant my hand (and tendon) were twisted when using it. 

I do believe in not skimping of the quality of keyboard that you use. If you're a screen worker, this is the primary element that you will be engaging with so it needs to be comfortable and well built to make sure that you minimise the risk of harm to yourself and get the maximum user pleasure from typing on it. The MX S is a solid quality build. My first lasted four years until I wore out two of the higher use keys enough that they were erratic in use.

However, I miss the tactile feedback and sound of the keys clacking that I remember of old. I remembered something satisfying in typing on a keyboard like that. Was it just nostalgia?

I ended up looking at quite a few keyboard reviews over the last two years, and was hankering after trying one of Keychron's models based on some comments by folks whose opinions that I have time for. So I ended up selecting a Keychron K10 Max. It's a full size keyboard with a numeric keypad. It's reasonably plain, and I went with a dark colour as I have memories of the way that some keyboards build up residues which show if they're lighter colours. 

I selected Brown Switches because they are a halfway house - tactile but quieter than the Blue switches but not a linear response like the Red gaming switches. It took a while to understand exactly how this worked and I found this article really useful.

It took just over a week to get to me from China, and I immediately noticed the heft of the keyboard when I opened the box. I'd happily carry the Logitech MX S with me somewhere, but I think that this is definitely one that is going to stay on my desk. 

The keyboard came configured UK-ISO set up for a Mac. The keyboard can be switched between Mac and Windows but if you want Windows symbols you will need to swap out the Mac specific keys for Windows ones. These are provided, along with the necessary tools and instructions. The keyboard can be used with Bluetooth or directly wired. It will support up to three different devices at once over Bluetooth, which seems to be the norm for the technology. The Mac set up means I will resist the urge to pair it with my work laptop.

The keyboard itself has a white backlight and   you can select how it behaves. Apparently you can connect into it and edit the settings quite heavily, but I've had no need to do this at all. Battery charging is via USB-C, and it either has a smaller battery or consumes much more energy than my MX S as I've had to charge it twice in the last week of use.

So what's my verdict? 

I really like the keyboard. There's a lovely tactile feel from it and the keyclicks are very reassuring and make me feel like I'm making progress as I am writing. The keyboard is more upright than the MX S which means that I will need to watch that I do not twist the tendon in my right hand and maintain proper posture, but it does feel delightful to use. Perhaps the only thing that irks me is the battery usage, but I'll see how that plays out. It's not really a hardship as there's a USB hub immediately behind the keyboard on the desk so I can easily top it up.

I'm happy I've got this, there's no regrets. There may have been some nostalgia in the purchase but using the keyboard shows me that it was more than justified.

Recommended.

19 July 2025

Longplay is now available on the Mac

One of my favourite iOS apps, Longplay, is now available on macOS, either directly from the publisher or via the Mac App Store. I originally posted about the iPhone version back in January 2021.

TL;DR: One of my favourite iOS apps is now available on macOS. This presents your digital music albums as wall of covers. It's very configurable so you can go all High Fidelity and choose your own sorting scheme.

It's a very simple concept; it just shows the album covers of the music that you have. You select an album and it plays the whole thing. 

The image above shows you everything that you need to know, and will probably give you a good flavour on the albums I've played a lot (at least since I got this MacBook Pro).

You can nuance that. For example, I usually sort the albums in priority of addiction and have the size increase the more plays that the album has had. You could reverse that and do it by how much you've neglected the album.

You can also have the player controls only start or stop the album, or allow access to move forward and back amongst the apps.

I love the app because it reminds me of browsing through my old CD collection. You can see the images and get reminded of albums that you used to love, or that you meant to give another go. You can do this with the Music app, but it's nowhere near as delightful.

It looks like the publisher has a trial version on their website, if this sounds like something you'd like.

19 July 2025

Traveller - The Jägermeister Adventure - Ep 4 - Doors and Corners (Spoilers, AI)

The fourth play session for The Jägermeister Adventure happened tonight and, quite pleasingly, we had no technical issues, even though we had reverted back to using Roll20 for both audio and video. As usual, I recorded the session using Audio Hijack and have uploaded the output into tabletoprecorder.com to allow me to extract a summary. Overall session length was one hour forty five minutes, mainly as we reached a natural breakpoint and I didn't want to overshoot time wise like I did in Episode 3.

It felt fitting to play Traveller on the evening after the funeral service I'd attended for Derrick Jones, a long time friend and Traveller player and GM who passed away recently. He is greatly missed. RIP.

Characters.

Saul Emzer (Graham) - the only professional bounty hunter in the group, a guild member well aware of his own shortcomings. Saul knows his aptitude is the down and dirty part of the missions. He isn't the brains, and he certainly can't fly a ship, but when the trouble goes down, he's a man of action, and of stealth when needed. Saul has brought the rest of the team together to support him and fill out the skill gaps. He doesn't like to think of himself as the leader, but he's the one with the official guild membership. He's made some big scores in the past.

Gibert Chang (Andy) - hailing from the Meriden system's Harmony habitat, the home of an obscure religious sect, Gilbert sought freedom by joining the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service. He grew up with good understanding of space construction and has supplemented this with a wide range of technical skills, becoming a professional spacer. He describes himself as the potential getaway driver, but is officially the ship's engineer,  and he comes with a broad (but not deep) range of experience and a well-used but cared for vacuum suit called Nadia.

Arturo "Lucky" Javed (Paul) - Lucky's life has been a lot of ups and downs, probably more of the latter than the former. He aspired to be an intelligent agent but was kicked out of that career early on following a serious injury. He then took to a life of petty crime, struggling to make do and stay out of trouble. Eventually, a role came up on a Merchant vessel, but he kept his hand in with the underworld to try and make some money on the side. He knows Gil of old following a job that went sideways. Lucky is the one who is likely to make contact with any criminal elements that the group may need to deal with.

Pen Gata (Neil) - has spent his life in space, with a broad range of spacer skills that means he's the pilot and astrogator. Once again, he's a broad specialist rather than a deep expert. (The character was built with package generation so has a less developed life path).

The Jägermeister - a 100dT Jump-2 streamlined courier capable of 6G thrust, the ship is also their home and Assured Courier's GmbH's main asset. The crew mostly live aboard, as it's a lot more pleasant than the desert world of Ikeran where they're officially based (and have a rented office). The ship is usually located in one of the downport's long-term parkways. She's armed with a single triple turret with beam lasers and a missile rack. 

Session notes.

This was the second session on Bulari, and the characters were continuing their pursuit of Edric Voss into Yarm and the adjacent refuge settlement, populated by over twenty-thousand Souther refugees from the Valkosi Civil War. This is the closest to Voss' home territory that we've come so far, and there was definitely potential for the characters to suffer harm, especially as only Pen was carrying anything heavier than a stunner. I think that the players managed the investigation well; we could have finished all of the Bulari elements with perhaps another 15 minutes play but it leaves us with a good kick off for the next session.

It was noticeable through the session that Paul's character definitely lived up to his nickname with the dice rolls that were made.

The 'doors and corners' reference is a Detective Miller from The Expanse reference about entering an unknown space on an investigation. We had a good giggle when Andy imagined Gil, in a high-vis top with a checklist on a clipboard doing 'point and call' when he entered a room.

From my perspective, I now had a realistic Plan B and Plan C in case the characters caught up with Edric Voss. I think that put me in a much better frame of mind when I started the session. During the session, because we had people continuously in different locations, I ended up doing a lot of cutting between players and locations to try and keep the spotlight moving.

The next section is, as usual, from Tabletop Recorder. This was the cleanest take on recording the session and hopefully that shows in the output below. We deliberately did introductions at the start of the session to give the language model as much chance as possible to get the right output.

I'm not entirely happy with the output from tabletop recorder on this session. Although the transcript is very good, the summary is fluffy and lacking detail. Hence for the second week running I'm going to add a quick final summary. If the output doesn't improve much beyond this I suspect that I won't be wanting to take this much further when my beta subscription runs out. I've fed back to the developers. The tone and vagueness doesn't really fit that well with the kind of scenario that I like to run.

Summary of the Session (lightly edited AI synthesis of the transcript).

Upon gathering at their respective locations, each member of the team charts their path for the day. Gil Chang, using his inherent charm and carousing skills, discreetly navigates through the bustling refugee camp, attempting to eavesdrop on snippets of valuable information. Simultaneously, Saul Emser pursues his own inquiry away from the camp, believing his presence there might provoke unwanted attention. Saul meanders through the town, absorbing conversations and local rumours to stitch together the current sociopolitical tapestry and, hopefully, catch wind of a potential lead. 

Meanwhile, Arturo Javid, nicknamed 'Lucky' though the irony of his moniker remains to be seen, decides to follow a practical approach. He chooses to dive into administrative dealings, planning to verify and perhaps fortify their leads by conversing with the local administrative officers. 

Penn, stationed strategically in their vehicle, prepares for a swift mobilization. Equipped not just with tools and weapons but also readiness to provide transportation or extra hands as the situation demands, Penn awaits instructions from the team to jump into action. 

Meticulously, Saul then explores the possibility of their target's involvement in local disturbances — a strategy that involves presenting his credentials and navigating bureaucratic hurdles to extract information from the police about their man. 

As boundaries between investigative and confrontational approaches blur, each member, including Lucky and Penn, aligns their skills towards enhancing their search tactics, whether through stealth, negotiation, or direct confrontation. The team's investigation deepens as they consider all possible scenarios, including impersonations and camouflages, to better understand and capture their elusive prey. 

The narrative unfolds as Gil, emboldened by hypothesis and liquor, theorises a connection to a scandal during the fighting in Naggeth, possibly involving the dead quartermaster and the mysterious Edric Voss. As Gil's inquiries potentially spiral towards a confrontation, the team strategizes rendezvous points and backup maneuvers, ready to support their comrade or withdraw to safety strategically. 

In solidarity and determination, the team converges energies, each leveraging their unique skills to unravel the mystery at hand, inching closer to the true machinations behind the chaos that's spurred them into action. 

In the heat of their strategic planning, Penn boldly suggests using their air raft to squash their target from above, indicating a readiness for direct action. Saul Emser, however, steers the conversation towards a potentially less lethal approach by planning to extract information from a contact about Voss's whereabouts. Saul considers leveraging the contact's side hustle as a bargaining chip to gain this critical piece of intelligence. 

The team discusses various tactics including deception, negotiation, and the strategic use of weaponry to extract the needed information without tipping off their adversaries. This diverse array of strategies showcases the team's versatility and readiness to adapt to unfolding scenarios on the ground. 

Arturo Javid (Lucky) expresses concern about an armed individual posing a threat, underscoring the perilous nature of their mission. Meanwhile, Saul prepares to confront the sniper that guards their target location, emphasising the need for stealth and surprise in their approach. 

Gil Chang, maintaining a low profile, suggests penetrating their objective under the guise of a casual patron, a strategy supported by his fellow operatives. Saul's outward appearance, featuring a military buzz cut, is scrutinized for its potential to either blend in or stand out, adding another layer of complexity to their undercover operations. 

The plot thickens as Gil, facing intoxication, nearly collapses but is supported by his comrades. They consider leveraging additional resources such as stunners for their imminent confrontations, further discussing logistics such as securing an air raft for quick extraction and setup for their next move. 

As their operation unfolds, the team's dialogue is peppered with tactical assessments, contingency planning, and real-time adjustments, reflecting their commitment to not only capturing their quarry but also managing the complex dynamics of their mission's environment. The discussion concludes with affirmations of their strategy and readiness to act, encapsulating a tense yet focused preparation phase poised to transition into decisive action.

In summary: Gil was in the refugee camp and carousing, trying to find out about Voss. Saul and Arturo were going around Yarm town, while Penn made sure that the very expensive air/raft wasn't at risk. They regrouped and decided that they all needed to go into the refugee camp. Saul checked out Voss with the police, liberally bribing his way to the front of the queue; there were no records of him, but there was a live murder-scene which he greased the wheels of bureaucracy to get permission to visit. Arturo slickly got a conversation with one of the harassed clerks at the Adminstration centre. This confirmed that Voss wasn't on record, but further conversations with those around mirrored what Gil was finding. Some of the key points were that Voss had been there 1-2 months before, looking for Souther Veterans who wanted to undertake 'a mission' and ideally had NBC experience. There was possible interest in a ruined location called Naggeth on the interdicted world of Valkosi. Penn scared off some teenagers who offered to 'take care of his car', by showing he was armed. Gil was confronted by an individual who may have meant him harm, but they ended up drinking in the bar, where he was offered info on Voss if he spent the night at the bar drinking with the owner and paid him a fee. Arturo and Saul smoothly joined in, directly cutting a deal and paying for information that Voss wanted them delayed; they effectively bought out the contract. Meanwhile Gil was very ill. They checked out the murder scene and confirmed that it was a former Valkosi Army Quartermaster who had NBC kit to sell. His throat had been slit and the kit was gone. They also checked out the home of someone linked to Voss, Holgar Larsen, to find that they had upped and left like they were going away for some time. In the rubbish bin, they found a note which included 'Bay I'. There's a Bay I in the starport. They headed back to ship and started preparation for take off (refuelling and processing) and also to raid Bay I.