Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.

[Mauron]

I just finished the second session of the campaign, following the Fiery Trial module.

The Drazi Agent (this setting's rogue)/Trader and the Human Soldier (this setting's fighter)/Telepath left Babylon 5 to investigate a research facility operated by the employers of the guy who hired the party. Everyone involved is secretive about who exactly they are, but they're part of Interplanetary Expeditions, the same group that led the mission to Za'Ha'Dum, along with others, some less legal than others.

The group had to briefly exit Hyperspace in one sector (Why? I understand the benefit in the module, but having to exit Hyperspace here makes no sense) near a Drazi outpost, where their ship was searched and then had to wait for a Drazi warship to jump to Hyperspace (Which they'll encounter later).

After arriving on the planet, they scouted the expedition's campsite. The whole place is looted and trashed. They find some notes by the team leader, indicating a new discovery in the ruins. After entering the main dome, they decided to send two people back to the ship (one player and one NPC) to power the dome. We stopped there for the night because people were getting tired, and if the party splits up, the Llort that attacked this place will try to ambush the people that are separated.

I'll have some more comments tomorrow.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Nice!

The Drazi Agent (this setting's rogue)/Trader and the Human Soldier (this setting's fighter)/Telepath left Babylon 5 to investigate a research facility operated by the employers of the guy who hired the party. Everyone involved is secretive about who exactly they are, but they're part of Interplanetary Expeditions, the same group that led the mission to Za'Ha'Dum, along with others, some less legal than others.

I had to look up Interplanetary Expeditions; they went under my radar during the series, and upon looking at the B5 wiki, there were quite a few episodes with them -- including being over the Icarus mission to Za'Ha'Dhum ("if you go to Za'Ha'Dhum you will die" ~ can't not say it). RIP Ana Sheridan.

The group had to briefly exit Hyperspace in one sector (Why? I understand the benefit in the module, but having to exit Hyperspace here makes no sense) near a Drazi outpost, where their ship was searched and then had to wait for a Drazi warship to jump to Hyperspace (Which they'll encounter later).

Was there not a jumpgate in the target sector? I'm curious why, mechanically speaking, you'd have to drop out for a single sector just to jump back in. I didn't think hyperspace/jumpgates worked like that. Unless, of course, ya know, plot.

After arriving on the planet, they scouted the expedition's campsite. The whole place is looted and trashed. They find some notes by the team leader, indicating a new discovery in the ruins. After entering the main dome, they decided to send two people back to the ship (one player and one NPC) to power the dome. We stopped there for the night because people were getting tired, and if the party splits up, the Llort that attacked this place will try to ambush the people that are separated.

Nice! I always forget about the Llord to be honest. Btw, are there racial limitations? Like, could I hypothetically be a Gaim if I played? What about a First One race? I assume no to the later, but everyone loves being a snowflake when they play D&D.

[Mauron]

Was there not a jumpgate in the target sector? I'm curious why, mechanically speaking, you'd have to drop out for a single sector just to jump back in. I didn't think hyperspace/jumpgates worked like that. Unless, of course, ya know, plot.

The whole point was to have the players see the Drazi Sunhawk at this point, so it wouldn't be a complete surprise when it shows up at the end of the module. It's also supposed to happen on day 1 of an 8 day journey, but based on the star charts provided, it should be more on day 7.

Nice! I always forget about the Llord to be honest. Btw, are there racial limitations? Like, could I hypothetically be a Gaim if I played? What about a First One race? I assume no to the later, but everyone loves being a snowflake when they play D&D.

There's a whole book on the Gaim, which includes two Gaim breeds you can play as, the Ambassador/Explorer breed seen in the show, and a larger Warrior breed. They've pretty much covered every race in the show, and a bunch of races from the books.

They've got Vorlon and Shadow stats, but they'd only be playable in special circumstances. All the other races are available barring extinction or introduction to the series. Dilgar are out in 2258, some of the ancient races from the last great war are out unless it's a campaign set then, in which case Humans would be out. There's a race that's first made contact with the rest of the galaxy around the time of Legend of the Rangers that wouldn't be available yet.

The module is a little lower in quality than I'd like. There are some things that are detailed better than others. They mention there are seven prefab tents and a large dome at the campsite, but its hard to tell the exact size or material from the description provided. They didn't expect Drazi players or players that speak Drazi, because there are multiple NPCs that are causally racist towards Drazi when discussing things, and when you meet the Drazi, the module specifies "they speak in Drazi unless addressing you", but don't explain what they say the rest of the time.

[Mauron]

Finally had another session. When one player and an NPC left to go back to the ship to grab a power generator, they were ambushed by the Llort, who wanted access to the ship. They relayed information to the pilot who let the defense systems take care of the intruders.

The players were able to negotiate with the captured Llort to return the scientists they had, and provide them passage off the planet, and away from the Drazi authorities looking for them. The scientists were rescued, and the Llort were turned over to the Drazi rather quickly.

I'm going to stop using the Fiery Trail campaign after this. At no point did they mention how many scientists were in the camp, the map shows 6 tents but the module describes 7, the tents are poorly described (no size, or real description of the material beyond "prefabricated"), the pointless drop from Hyperspace in one sector, it doesn't account for Drazi players, and other miscellaneous complaints.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Are you acting as the DM for your B5 campaign?

Also, I finally watched Legend of the Rangers last night... Next up is the movie precursor to Crusade (the name escapes me at the moment). It was actually better than I expected, as I've read some pretty lackluster reviews for it.

However... the female weapons specialist thing really came across as stupid. I liked the idea that she somehow interfaced with the ship and her martial combat translated to the attacks of the ship, but boy was it idiotic to see it actually play out.

[Mauron]

Yeah, I am. That's how I can get a group together for Babylon 5 so easily.

I was disappointed when Legend of the Rangers didn't take off.

I remember that weapons system looking cool when I first saw it, but that was some time ago, so maybe it would seem different now.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Tell me your updates from your games! I am living vicariously through you.

[Mauron]

The game is run on Thursdays, so no updates at the moment.

[Mauron]

The most recent session had a nervous young Centauri ask the party to retrieve some rare Human alcohol, known as Stan's Root Beer.

The party happily accepted the job, and brought back some root beer beer along with the requested root beer.

Londo was quite pleased with the actual alcohol, and the party's initiative on that front.

There was also some trading done while fetching the root beer from Proxima 3.

This session ran a little short because the trading aspect will become a little heavier soon. It seems we'll have a Space and Wolf theme (Spice and Wolf in space), and I need to come up with some better trading rules.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Bahaha! Did Londo try to pass some off to the Minbari? Force poor Lennier to try some (I assume this is non-alcoholic root beer and Londo is just under the impression it's alcoholic).

One of the things that confused me about Babylon 5 was the inaccuracies in time lengths with space travel. Early in the series they would often lament how hard it was to acquire certain goods due to being so far out; specific examples include coffee (so bad that Ivanova secretly grew in the public gardens), whatever stuff Girabaldi needed to make his Italian dishes, and eggs. Several times they lamented the fact that they couldn't get real, genuine eggs.

By those merits, it sounds like it takes weeks or more to get to B5. But then, late in the series they get the ability to travel to and from Earth in a matter of days. If that's the case, why would it be so challenging to acquire normal trading goods? You'd think things like coffee and eggs would be basic staples easy to transport and supply to the B5 human demographics. Surely there's a store specializing in human foodstuffs that would love to sell them.

Just some food for thought. Maybe you can utilize some of these thoughts and integrate them into the trading aspects of your campaign?

[Mauron]

Londo is not yet aware on how alcohol affects Minbari. He had thought it was alcoholic, and was quite disappointed to learn otherwise.

It occurred to my last night that the reason why Londo was under that impression is he had spoken about it to Garibaldi about drinks, and got an unhelpful reply.

Hyperspace moves at the speed of plot in the series, but from what I can see they'd be able to get coffee without issue no matter what. Fresh meat would be more of an issue, but frozen would be doable.

[Mauron]

Last week the Human Telepath/Soldier was replaced by a Brakiri Telepath/Lurker.

We had some roleplay introducing the new character, some selling of goods, and then onto the main plot.

Londo, quite pleased with the party's suggestion of Root beer beer, hired them to retrieve some Centuari artifacts from a current Narn colony, left behind during the occupation.

The Brakiri player made some progress on one of the great mysteries of the universe - that all sentient races have a dish that tastes identical to Swedish Meatballs, successfully determining that at least three races have such a thing (Brakiri, Narn, and Humans).

This particular Narn colony has limited Jump Gate access, the only charted route going through Centauri space.

They were quite pleased with the Breen, and that's where we wrapped up.

I think there will be an option for the players to help chart a new hyperspace route between here and the nearest Narn colony.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Last week the Human Telepath/Soldier was replaced by a Brakiri Telepath/Lurker.

What happened to the Telepath character?

The Brakiri player made some progress on one of the great mysteries of the universe - that all sentient races have a dish that tastes identical to Swedish Meatballs, successfully determining that at least three races have such a thing (Brakiri, Narn, and Humans).

This made me laugh. Clearly this character needs to identify the dish for each species. If the character has any sort of interest in academia, I'm sure some sort of doctoral analysis could come out of it...

Speaking of which, I can't remember -- is life in the Babylon 5 universe spontaneous? Star Trek TNG ended up revealing that all species are similar in biology (bipedal, two arms, etc) due to the fact that the genetic material was seeded across multiple planets. I can't recall Babylon 5 ever addressing this. It could always tie into the above -- that each species has a dish that tastes like Swedish meatballs!

[Mauron]

Player boredom, mostly. The original character was reassigned by Psi Corps.

Life evolved naturally in Babylon 5, but Telepathy did not. It was the result of Vorlon tampering with the genetics of the younger races to fight the Shadows.

The great universal mystery.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Yeah, I knew the psionics were the work of the Vorlons. This is why, after the last Shadow War 2000 years ago, the Narn ended up killing off those of their own species with with the genetic capacity (which they later regretted).

Interesting enough, they also mentioned that the techno-mages were the same equivalent, except created by the Shadows. However, the techno-mages ultimately rebelled against their masters, took their new technology-based powers, and split.

By the way -- I had done a rewatch of B5 this year and have yet to watch Crusade. I always  LOVED the character of Marcus Cole. His whole LOtR Ranger-vibe and his collapsible Minbari bo-staff was wicked awesome. I remember watching season 4 as a kid and was devastated by his death.

Even in the rewatch I love his character. His sort of jovial snarkiness evaded me when I saw this in the mid-1990s, but now as an adult I dig it.

Regardless, I went to Jason Carter's website and found his email. I've never done fan mail before, so I was up late one night and on a whim decided to email him. He responded a few days later and we had a short little exchange.

He's an incredibly charming person in real life, at least from his emails. One of the things that stood out to me was how close he and Richard Biggs were; I had seen in videos from cons that they had been friends, but it was clear in our exchanges that they really were great friends. In fact, he was the one who brought up their friendship - he mentioned how he loved working with ALL of the staff, "including my very dear, greatly missed, friend Richard Biggs. We had so much fun."

I meant to tell you before. This was back in January/early February.