Waterbrick Down

"So we've got squat, unless Ambassador Sawyer would like to add new information that has yet to be shared."

"Bathroom's all in order." Arthur investigates the trash.

Arthur checks the bathroom.

"So since no one's really answering any questions these days... next room?"

Arthur checks the trash for any other loose notes.

"Any particular reason you've held that information back, Mrs. Dawson? Or did I miss your sharing earlier? I'd think anything 'secretive' in nature would have aroused suspicion."

"Darn, that's one of my favorites." "Mr. Seymour, could you remind us again what sorts of business you're involved in?"

Arthur checks what was the last channel/movie on the console. "And we still don't know how Parry could have gotten into Mallory's room in the first place as he's been unwilling to answer any follow up questions."

My first preference would be the standard heads for the Kimerans vs the helmets as they're more animalistic and less alien-like (hence in keeping with the theme of animals evolved to the point of sentience as opposed to being a completing independent species). That being said the point of the Kimerans is that they are a newly recognized sentient species. Prior to a few years back, they were not considered intelligent/cultural enough to classify as worthy of intergalactic rights and protections. There would certainly be sub-species would certainly fit just fine. No current plans for that head or vampires in general No names yet, I'm currently working on maps and intend to have a breakdown of 6-8 major planets utilizing the old Starwars ornament sets. They're more broken down by biome: One planet is ice-filled and circles it's sun every 30 years and only has 1 year of thaw Another spawns inorganic rock based life-forms and is more deserty in nature The Kimeran's home planet is a fertile, junglesque plaent, more due to druid terraforming There's a pair of ocean planets that periodically pass close enough to one another that people cross between the two very easily A gaseous planet whose inhabitants exist in mostly liquid and gas forms Something semi-analogous to earth, where elves/dwarves are from Of course a planet based on industry A split planet with no rotation, where half the planet is perpetually in the dark and the other is perpetually in the sun

@Fugazi "Doctor Frost, what time did you go to bed on the evening of the power shut down?"

"I'm not sure if he'd been able to access the escape pods with the power off. Alternatively, he could have simply never went upstairs and simply went from Mr. Peck's room, to Mr. Mallory's, and then to storage. But that doesn't explain who burnt something in housekeeping. It should also be noted, that I don't think we've confirmed it was immediately after the power went off that people congregated." Arthur tries to recall how long the power was off and if everyone was in the lounge when it came on, or afterwards.

"I don't think he was. He broke in to the storage whenever the power was on as otherwise the door would have been unlocked. My current theory is that the power was turned off, Mr. Parry then entered Mr. Peck's room looking for documents, killed him, stashed the murder weapon in Mallory's room, and then hid on the 2nd floor while we all congregated in the lounge, burned the documents in housekeeping, before having to break into storage as the power would have been back on at that point." Arthur inspects the trash.

"Considering he broke into the storage instead of contacting one of the crew his behavior is already suspicious. I'd find it hard to believe we have two independently malicious parties aboard." "Mr. Mallory, I still don't believe you answered my earlier question. Who else to your knowledge aside from the engineer has been in your room?"

"So considering Mr. Parry didn't have anything else suspicious on his person, I think that further proves he was trying to get away with information." Arthur prepares to accompany everyone to 1F.

"So it would seem like a safe assumption that whoever is following us is still waiting for something to be delivered off of the ship. We know that Mr. Parry had launch codes for the escape pods, and unless he was trying to jettison himself on a nearby planet while moving at warp speed, it seems like a good guess that he was trying to get to our pursuer. Since we didn't find anything else unusual on Mr. Parry, he might have simply been trying to get out with knowledge he had recently acquired. As Mr. Peck was an inventor and probably had some important research documents on him. My current theory is that Mr. Parry broke in, stole the documents, copied or memorized the key findings, burned the evidence in the housekeeping compartment and then made his way to the storage to get his belongings before trying to head for the escape pods. While in storage he was inadvertently knocked out and lost his memory of the events." Arthur pondered for a moment. "Do we have any way of knowing whether our communication signal is being blocked by an on-board device, or whether it's being jammed by the ship pursuing us?" Arthur tries to recall if they had inspected all of Mr. Parry's luggage in the storage area.

"Coming up empty again..." Arthur heads for the lounge to prepare drinks.

But that's just it, these are the two major factions in the setting and while the players may not have to pick a side, it automatically relegates one side to mostly the "bad guys" of the world and I'd rather we didn't paint it with that broad of a brush, as it creatively pigeon holes an entire chunk of the setting into a specific role. Hence why I think we keep things high level, with pros and cons, and let different QM's get into the nitty gritty. As far as pros go for the empire, I think one could argue that they've ordered their society in such a way that things are simply more efficient. Everyone is working for the good of the community and each-other and yes there will be disproportion comparing the top to the bottom, but the society as a whole values contentedness and peace over ambition and ingenuity. The fig recommendations are awesome, thanks! This definitely helps inspire some more ideas I've figbarfing.

Oof so that's a lot to get through. I appreciate the deep dive, but I'm right there with Classic_Spaceman, we need a condensed version. This is the type of stuff you could run a whole questline on. I do like the attempt at offering balanced views on the pros and cons of the factions. You've definitely done that with the League (individual freedom, but with the price of no overall structure to limit abuses of the system), but I didn't see a whole lot for the Empire (caste system keeps everyone in their place for the most part, but ???). If we can rough those big picture items out, I think that gives folks enough of an understanding that if they ever wanted to dive deeper into the "why" a faction is the way it is, they'll have a good starting place. The idea, as Lord Duvors suggested, is that the "end" of the war is still relatively fresh. The Empire is the old established power, the League is much newer. There are other smaller factions and still some planets that have been untouched. What's your overarching theme for Blackstar, what role would they play in the setting? While it's good for players to have some background fleshed out that does some worldbuilding, if you're thinking giant shadow corporation that influences everything, it's easier to get other people's buy in by showing it to them in quests as opposed to simply suggesting everybody accept a giant piece of written backstory as canon. It's like in Heroica 1.0, if the Syndicate/Proggs never had any quests, but Endgame demanded everything he wrote about the Syndicate/Proggs into his character's backstory be taken seriously and built upon by everyone else. Basically, if you want people to be invested in/acknowledge your piece of background story and world-building, be willing to "show" it and not simply "write" it. The rule of thumb, is the more you want your world-building to interact with other players, the more you have to be willing to work to get their buy in. Science is a mix of magic and technology, magitek is probably a good theme for it. Some cultures definitely emphasize one over the other. Traditionally star travel was more fueled by magic, with technology slowly catching up or being integrated with it. Currently no plans for the Chima lion heads specifically, I've been roughing out a mammalian species called Kimerans, which are the result of a druidic science experiment gone wrong that granted a planet's animal species sentience. They'd use the Chima mammal figures, but I'm not glued in to using either the plane heads or just the "masks". Are you thinking your race would use the "masks" or the plane heads? The undead will be an established race, probably more zombie/skeletal than vampire. Which vampire head are you thinking? There's a lot. On a different subject, has anyone else had a lot of success with building non-humanoid (i.e. head, 2 arms, torso, 2 legs) aliens convincingly? I'm trying to figure out a way to easily include multiple arms/legs/different types of torsos without having to resort to "custom" measures or it looking robotic.

Arthur as always checks the trash. "Really, must everyone completely destroy their room?!?"

Arthur checks under the bed, @KotZ "Mr. Mallory, have you had anyone else in your room during this trip?" Arthur accompanies the group to 1d once they are finished in Jack's room.

"Guess I'm checking the trash. I still want answers thought Mr. Mallory."

"And we've either been together or in our separate rooms, someone would have had to either been missing from the group when moving the shards or Mr. Mallory would have seen them come into his room."

"Correct, but the shards would only have ended up in here, after the murder. Since we all assembled soon after the power-outage, that would mean they would have had to enter your room when we were all in the lounge or you would have seen them. Since we were all in the lounge with the exception of the captain and the engineer, who both have alibis, the only option left is you brought the shards back to the room yourself."

"We'll need to assume you put them there, unless you have an explanation for how someone got into your locked room."

@KotZ "Mr. Mallory, do you care to explain how these came to be here?"