GM: Sophie Lagacè
Players: Sen-Foong Lim, Banana Chan, Meguey Baker, Sean Nittner
System: Tiān Dēng: Tales from the Immortal God Ship
Tiān Dēng is done with public playtesting but there were enough revisions that we wanted to play some follow up playtests to see how everything was holding together!
Sophie ran a game from us (using one of the adventures from the game) and space hijinx ensued.
Our Adventures
- Gossip with Ming about what caused the explosion
- Negotiate to have him work for Mr. X. Failed, but agreed to be a consultant for us for a piece of the payout.
- Landed on LiChang to do the handoff
- Keilam used multipass to hack the cameras but someone noticed
- Chang’e wants some warm sesame balls!
- Choi Hong did an interpretive dance in the plaza to appease Chang’e (starting a flash mob)
- Met Mr. X who was surprised about the explosion
- They are Pangeans (from new New Pangea – planetwide rainforest)
- She’s a diplomat for the planet. Zhang Mingxiai. New Pangea is looking to build an arsenal to protect itself.
- We fly off with a bit of the flubber (the refined product)
- Kept Ming as a contact
- New Moon Gang wants to talk to us.
- May be associated with the terrorist organization Peace Keepers
- Asteroid DW-2A4 run Jinmen Mining Corporation
Playtest Notes
Game design goal: trying to have a scrappy team trying to get by. Balancing scarcity.
- Curse: Getting -1 after the roll doesn’t have as much oomph. If someone has a 11, 12, 8, or 9 on the roll then getting -1 won’t change the outcome. Suggest making this either -2 or removing the option. After some discussion decided to just have curse remove an option from a pick list.
- Curse: “If the named Crewmate fails a move, add a negative spin to an otherwise positive outcome.” This option doesn’t seem like it would come up. When a crewmate fails, they usually don’t get a positive outcome. – Text revised
- Some degree of universal stability (but not post-scarcity): when there is more pressure/scarcity, there will be more serious injustices (slavery, oppression) and presents more warlords to take on and drug dealers, and bounty hunters.
- If there’s a little bit more caretaking that the ship can provide (health, food, etc) then our jobs can be to get things nicer than the basics.
- When Calvin and Dee doing the world building. Why is the world in a bad state? Why isn’t it better than it is now?
- If we have a post-scarcity situation, is that resting on secret oppression on others.
- You could have a scarcity dial, here’s what it looks like? Playing a really dark version fighting for basic survival vs. a version there where is some safety net. Or lists: what is plentiful? What is scarce? (Basic Needs, Health, Culture, Ship needs, AI needs, etc). These could be adjusted at then end of each session.
- Since the worldbuilding has a lot of about people’s food, that could be an important way to bring those things in.
- Needs of the ship (fuel, repair) and the needs of the AI (personal)
- A dial for session zero. What kind of things do you want to have are plentiful, scarce. Create a list. A question for the GM at the game, what is plentiful and scarce. What did you gain or lose along the way?
- Fusion has been found. Energy is unlimited but other resources are not. Infinite energy doesn’t mean infinite space, food, luxury.
