The Debts of Jack Quincy: A Genesys Solo Game and Iron Horizons Demo

Right, returning from last time when we did the pregame set up, it’s time to start the actual adventure. Let’s be cliche and start it at a bar aboard Forlorn Hope Station, the Angel Red. If you missed the last post, which includes both the Iron Horizons demo and campaign set up, you can read it here.

Scene 1

Jack enters the Angel Red through the hatch, waiting for the half-functioning airlock to finish its cycle, despite the hulk of what was once a freighter being welded to the side of the station for an expansion. He rotates himself ninety degrees to adapt to the different gravitic direction, half-floating/half-walking through the crowded room, which stinks of alcohol, sweat, air filters overdue for replacement, and the ever-present lingering scent of oil and diesel that emits from the body. The bartender, Callahan Gibbs, nods and gestures to a table corner. Jack returns the nod and saunters, as much as he can in the direction of the table, at which sits….

Let’s roll for some NPCs here, these will be our quest givers. I’ll just grab a random name generator that does dieselpunk-sounding names and then I’ll use the Stars Without Number NPC generator for the details.

In the corner of the table sits Adeline Yates, an elderly woman wearing a finely-tailored and highly decorated Aldottorai Foreign Legion uniform that seems sad and neglected despite its pristine appearance; Clyde Potts, a sallow, shrunken middle-aged man, well known aboard the station for cheating at anything that could be cheated at, but pitied for his synthetic heroin addiction; and Ruby Mullen, a much younger woman in an elaborate, vibrantly colored evening gown accentuated by a pearl necklace, and a cape whose brooch indicates a high-level Aldottorai Colonial Trader.

That’s a good start. We have ourselves two representatives from the Aldottorai Colonial Trade Company, either working for them directly or their subsidiary, Alathni Company, as well as a locally known criminal, suggesting a conspiracy or collusion between the two for some mutual benefit, especially since they’re basically on neutral ground.

The parties introduce themselves as Jack takes a seat, shaking hands with each in turn.

“This is the lad I told you about,” Clyde explained to the other two, “Honest, dependable, quick on his feet, decent enough at piloting for someone without a ship.” Jack grins and puts his helmet on the table, running a hand through his hair.

“Clyde’s always dependable in his judge of character,” Jack replies. (I considered making a roll here, but decided against it, since Jack is technically telling the truth.) Ruby merely laughs politely and adjusts her dress to be further away from the table. A bottle of wine sits in front of the three of them, but only Clyde seems to be drinking.

“Marvelous,” Adeline replies, fingers interlaced and resting on the table in front of her. “We need someone with those abilities to do a job for us.”

“Why not the Legionaires?” Jack asks, resting his own hands on the table and leaning foward.

“Too indiscreet,” Ruby replies instantly, tracing the rim of her still-full wine glass with one gloved finger. “The Legionaire’s are famous for their heroic deeds. As soon as they leave the base, the press are after them.” That draws a dark glower from the miners at the closest table, and Clyde wipes his brow with a stained handkerchief, smiling weakly at them.

“What sort of job is it?” Jack asks, lowering his voice.

“We need you to go to…” Adeline responds.

I’m pausing here to put together a suuuper basic oracle. The demo document has 6 regions, so I’ll roll a D6 and let that determine where the job takes place at. I rolled a 1, which gives me Athena Proxima (because it’s the first one in the demo). That’s an interesting twist because Athena Proxima, the continent, is run by the Alathni Company on behalf of the Aldottorai Colonial Trading Company. That means whatever is going on is something that Adeline and Ruby don’t want their bosses to know about.

“Athena Proxima,” Ruby interrupts. “Because there is something we need retrieved, but are unable to get it ourselves.”

“Because of the danger or because of the legality?” Jack asks.

“Neither,” Ruby replies smoothly, “Merely inconvenience.”

Here, Jack is going to need to make a Vigilance check. Ruby is also, essentially, a Trader, meaning she likely has the same career skills as Jack, but more experienced. So I’ll say it’s a Hard check, meaning there will be three Difficulty dies (the purple ones). I could give Ruby her own character sheet, as she’s probably considered a Nemesis (an NPC that uses the same mechanics as a PC). I’m not quite ready for that yet, so I’ll just do the one sided roll right now.

Oof. That’s a painful one. Now, referring back to the Unmastered Play Guide, because we made a roll, we increase Momentum by 1. Additionally, because there’s an uncancelled Threat, we also raise Entropy by 1. Neither of these are significant enough to have a major impact on the campaign yet, but it does mean that Jack doesn’t realize Ruby is lying, and then there’s an additional negative consequence.

Jack considers this and nods, “Fair enough. I understand Athena Proxima isn’t the most pleasant place to be outside on.” None of them notice this, but another man, trench-coated and scarved, slips inside the bar, moving to a table at an angle from their own and facing away. They don’t see it, but this person is carrying some sort of eavesdropping device.

So, you can see the results of the check there. Jack doesn’t know that Ruby was lying, which will be an interesting twist later on. Additionally, a currently unknown NPC is eavesdropping on them after having followed Jack to the bar. This will tie into the mysterious and enemies, complications, and/or rivalries roll results from the adventure set up process.

“What am I retrieving?” Jack asks, leaning closer across the table. “And what’s the payout?”

“One of my shuttles suffered a mechanical failure and had to jettison cargo over the Scar,” Ruby answered. “It was a bad storm and we’re not sure where it ended up. Someone has to go up over the lip of the Scar and track it down, preferably someone familiar enough with piloting to guess at where the shuttle was and how the cargo may have fallen. And depending on how much cargo you recover, we’ll pay you five thousand Aldottorai dollars. Not Company scrip, true dollars.”

Jack lets out a low whistle. “I’ll need an identical shuttle to understand the feel of the atmo and flight plan.”

“Completely acceptable,” Ruby replies without hesitation. “We’ve fixed the one that suffered the failure, so you can take that one. Clyde can show you the hangar with the shuttle.”

Let’s go ahead and end scene one here, as that wraps up the point of this introductory segment quite well. Keep it nice, contained, and a manageable length. For Structured Play from the Unmastered Play Guide, we’re currently at Entropy 1 and Momentum 1, so just getting started in Act 1.

Join us next week as we return to The Debts of Captain Jack Quincy: A Genesys Solo Game & Iron Horizons Demo! More dieselpunk space opera action will be on its way!

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