The Debts Of Jack Quincy 3: A Genesys Setting Demo

(If you’re new to our Genesys setting demo and solo game here, you can check out the earlier posts: session 0, scene 1, scene 2. If you want to check out the setting demo for yourself, I have it in this Google Doc.)

Flashback to Last Time

We return to the adventures of Jack Quincy as he tries to pay off the family debt to the Jets and purchase his own tramp freighter!

His first job is to retrieve some fallen cargo from Athena Proxima, dumped by a high ranking Aldottorai Colonial Trading Company merchant because of mechanical failure in her shuttle and she can’t be bothered to retrieve it. When we last left off, Jack managed to lose someone who was following him through the maintenance corridors, got a shuttle started, and left Forlorn Hope Station, where we’ll pick up once again.

If you remember from last time, we had an uncancelled Threat that took our Entropy to 2, meaning it’s time to do a System Move. This System Move is transitional, meaning we move to Act 1- The Call to Adventure. Isn’t the job already a call to adventure, you may ask? Not really. Up until now, other than being followed, it’s a typical job for a freelance pilot. So now that we’re in Act 1, we also shift the focus to a Flaw. In this case, Jack’s flaw is Pride.

Time for Space Travel!

Jack leans over and pulls the radio headset toward him from the empty copilot chair before placing it on his head, glancing at the documents on the table indicating the ship’s registry number.

”Forlorn Traffic Control, this is ACTC shuttle 7961, requesting departure slot.” Jack says while watching the temperature and pressure gauges slowly climb up to takeoff levels.

”ACTC Shuttle 7961, your course has been pre-approved and prioritized,” the reply came back instantly through the radio, still clear, although interference would get stronger as he moves further from the station. “You may depart when ready.”

Jack raises his eyebrows in surprise, but manages not to say anything, except to confirm and start the countdown. In less than a minute, he finds himself out of the station and adjusting the navigation computer controls on the table beside him. It’s usually the co-pilot’s job to handle navigation, especially for planetary entry that needs to be gradual enough to avoid burning up.

A quick increase to the thrust sends the shuttle arcing away on the departure vector given by traffic control and Jack sets the autopilot before getting up and adjusting the dials and knobs on the navigational computer, watching as the clicking of the computer parts is mirrored by a course sketched on a loose map of the system, mirroring as closely as possible the recorded route of the earlier flight.

He nods in satisfaction and returns to the pilot’s seat, adjusting the angle of the navigational plot with a foot-lever so he can see it clearly. It will take a few hours to match velocity and vector, so Jack shuffles through the papers until he finds the weather records, perusing them.

They show the radio forecast transcripts and a weather chart indicating one of the major storms that often surge across the northern hemisphere of Alathni Major. Bad and severe, but to an experienced local pilot, not usually an issue, so perhaps the pilot was new or from out-system.

First, we need to have the vehicle statistic sheet, which I made and you can view here. Yes, this is a new starship added for this adventure, as it’s not (currently) included in the demo.

Jack leans back in the chair, one hand resting lightly on the controls, and the other hand flicks the switch on the radio, adjusting the dials until the jaunty sound of starswing fills the cockpit. Time passes and Jack guides the shuttle into the upper atmosphere, where a radio bulletin announces an approaching storm.

First Structured Encounter

I’m actually going to make two rolls here- one for Piloting and one for Vigilance, both of which will be Hard difficulty, meaning they have three of the purple Difficulty Dice. Two rolls in Narrative/Non-structured play means we also increase our Momentum.

First up is piloting! Our first Triumph result of the campaign as well. That means the next roll is Vigilance, for reasons which will come clear shortly.

Still a Success, but no Triumph, and that’s because there’s no yellow Proficiency die. Now, because the two also have uncancelled Threat, we increase Entropy by one for each roll. I’ve been using a Notion set up to keep track of the campaign, both text and the mechanics. Here’s my makeshift Momentum/Entropy tracker .

As you can see, the two are neck and neck so far, which helps keep things a little balanced. I haven’t done much yet with the Unmastered Play Guide mechanics for these yet, but Momentum can be cashed in for rolls, while Entropy affects rolls, especially oracle and NPC rolls.

Jack feels the controls begin to shudder under the wind and he looks back and forth between the cockpit canopy and the weather forecast charts, trying to gauge the best way to respond. But then lightning tears through the sky and momentarily blinds him and sends an electric shock racing through his body (Using the Threat from the piloting check to give Strain).

He falls limp in surprise, but quickly shakes his head and grits his teeth to push through, half-closing his eyes and relying on instinct more than conscious thought. The ship rattles and groans under the onslaught of conflicting forces- gravity, the antigravitic fields, the wind, and the engines. But Jack gets the rhythm of it quickly and follows the winds, letting them guide the course, quickly dropping through the layers of the storm, until finally popping out into clear sky with no real harm done, and at his destination quicker than the given course allowed (The result of the Successes and the Triumph).

With the sky now clear, Jack frowns as he spots two distant dots racing in on the horizon. There’s only a single small signature on the radar and nothing on the radio indicating who they might be. He squints at them and uses the shuttle’s magnification lens to get a better view of them

Fighters! And they’re coming straight for him, and the flash of muzzles indicating that they’re firing at him! He can’t make out any markings on the gray hulls. Jack is caught off guard and finds himself moving more slowly than expected (Result of the two Threats is to give Jack a black Setback die on the next roll). He realizes, however, that the storm was a blessing— without that extra speed, he would have landed right in their crosshairs without ever seeing them.

Dogfight!

Right, now we move into the first Combat encounter, a Structured Encounter meaning we increase Momentum again, and one using the Alternate Vehicle Rules from the Genesys Core Rulebook. If you’ve played Edge of the Empire, you’ll know the Vehicle rules used to be a little questionable, but I’ve heard that they fixed them with Genesys. Jack is flying the Shuttle, of course. If you looked at the sheet, you’ll notice that it’s unarmed. Not an ideal situation for Jack Quincy. He’ll be going up against a Multirole Fighter from the setting playtest document. (Jack isn’t expected to win this one, in case you were wondering.)

So, I’m going to roll Vigilance for the enemy pilots, as Jack already rolled his. Normally, they would be rolling Cool, but the Triumph negated that and caught them off guard. I’m basing the pilot stats off the Airship Pirate minion block from the CRB. Their initiative score is one Success and two Advantage. That means Jack moves first. The shuttle was moving at Speed 1, so he’ll take the Accelerate maneuver and Dangerous Driving action, which is a hard Piloting check, with a Setback because of the shuttle’s poor handling and another for the Threat on the last roll.

And that’s not good. It’s a failure, and Jack takes a Strain in addition to not passing the check.

Tracer rounds cut through the still-gloomy sky as bullets hiss past the shuttle while Jack desperately hauls on the controls and pushes the throttle all the way forward. The ungainly shuttle lurches forward and he throws his body into the controls, trying to twist away. Sweat beads on his brow and one hand flicks the radio switch, only to hear nothing but static. There’s no one to call for help and the sudden maneuvers send the shuttle plummeting toward the surface.

Now, we move to the other pilots. They’re a Minion, so they act as one group. Their fighters are moving at speed 3 and take the Reposition maneuver to move one range band closer, followed by the Attack action, using their Air Attack Rockets. They get two Failure as their result, because the rockets are Inaccurate 2, which adds two Setback die. That’s it for their turn.

Jack hears an aggressive hiss through the air and cranes his neck to look out the front and sees four attack rockets hurtle past where he would have been. The shuttle still plunges through the atmosphere and the fighters are diving after him, closing the distance fast. With a massive grunt, Jack pulls back on the yoke to try and ease the dive.

That’s another piloting check, with only one Setback this time. The result is one Failure and two Threat. This time, the Threat will inflict System Strain on the shuttle.

The speed is too great still and the shuttle still plunges downward, cutting through the lingering storm clouds and the ground grows clearer and clearer with each passing second. Jack can see the Scar now, lit here and there by the lights of settlements in the gloom. The vessel rattles and shakes around him and a siren pairs with a flashing red light in the cockpit.

And back to the fighter pilots! They repeat the Reposition maneuver to get into Medium range, moving at speed 3, and they attack with their heavy wing-mounted machine guns. Again, no successes.

The fighters are behind Jack now and he can’t see them, but he can see the barrage of tracers snapping through the air above him, meaning they’re haven’t figured out the leading distance yet. That gives him a sigh of relief, but sweat still pours down the back of his jumpsuit. He gives up on trying to stop the dive and instead tries to angle the shuttle away.

This time, we have one Success and two Threat. Jack stops the dive, but the strain is beginning to show on the shuttle.

The shuttle slips sideways with a deep groan through the hull as the resistance slams into the side of the shuttle rather than being deflected around the nose. Something behind Jack crackles and pops, sending a cascade of sparks spraying across the cockpit.

As this happens, he hears what he fears most: the crackle of bullets slamming into the shuttle, tearing through the hull, electronics, and hydraulic systems. Instantly, the controls begin to go stiff and unresponsive, but he still has some control through dead stick flying. With one hand, Jack tightens the chin strap on his helmet. Smoke pours into the cockpit from behind.

That was the next attack from the pilots and this time they hit. Not a bad hit, only two Success results to add to the default damage of four. The shuttle has a Hull Trauma Threshold of 12 and it just took 6 damage in one round, so that’s half of its physical integrity. Jack needs to pull some fancy flying now, so he’s going to take the Decelerate maneuver, taking two System Strain on the ship to reduce speed to zero. That should mean the fighters will overshoot.

Jack cuts the engine entirely and rams the throttle all the way back to full close. The engine’s shrill scream goes silent in a heartbeat and the two fighters scream past him. They’ll have to circle around as they rapidly shrink into dots. That buys him enough time. Jack grabs the magnification lens and stares at the landscape below. There’s not much. The only water he sees is at the bottom of the Scar, but he’s not sure he can fit the crippled shuttle into the relatively narrow entrance to the massive canyon.

Ahead and below, the turrets on the fighters swing upward and fire at him from Long Range. The smaller bullets smack into the hull but do no real damage, despite him hearing the hull be shredded beneath the impact. He leans forward and nudges the throttle forward again and the engine chokes back to life, helping generate a little more lift to ease the fall.

The fighters have swung around now and he can see the fire from the thrusters of their rockets as they fire another volley. These rockets skim just past the shuttle and explode in the distance.

Jack pushes the throttle forward again, regaining what he can of his speed, still speeding across the ever-approaching landscape, and tries to push the craft down closer to the surface at a gradual angle. The metal creaks and shrieks, but he drops down much closer to the surface now where he can identify specific landmarks.

The smoke billows out thicker behind him and he coughs, slapping a mask over his mouth. He’ll have to crash land. The fighter engines roar above the sound of his poor shuttle’s own struggling engine as they come up close behind and the throaty chatter of the machine guns tear through the ship. He heard the vessel die, its engine giving a few last gasps before coming to a grinding halt. Silence fills the cockpit and the ground races ever closer….