Out in the Black a body can find many things. Peace. Death. The crew of the Stargazy just wants to keep flyin' as long as they can without the meddlin' of the Alliance.
"Howdy ma'am, Miss Chen hired us. Said this Petr had a ment'l hist'ry and she didn't want your lives in his hands. So she baought this fer ya....", the mechanic points at a large electronic system on the lift. "Now sir," the mechanic says turning to Spart, "This is quallity stuff! The real deal! Have a look at 'er Miss Chen fixed ya up good."
If Spart chooses to look he will see a sophisticated AI model for the bridge
"Whoa, easy fellas," Spart exclaims. "You wanna install a machine instead of a real pilot. That's not good. It'll drive us straight into Alliance patrols and when it's been manipulated and Ah don't know, we're screwed."
He turns to Captain Kwok. "Ma'am, Ah don't know how long and good you know Petr, but Ah'll prefer a mentally unstable pilot instead of an AI steerin' the ship. Especially when it's installed on an Alliance-controlled world. And by the look of it, it must've been worth more than we make from a dozen runs."
So that's the plan for Petr? I don't want to mess the game up or anything, since I like it, but you could've made him an NPC who stays mostly on the ship and there on the bridge. Just like Wash. Always ready to get the ship started.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
Amelia finds herself somewhat reluctant to believe the men's claims. Even though he makes her uncomfortable at times, she has somehow grown fond of Petr. Besides, she knows nothing of these men and has no proof they were sent by Ms. Chen. She says to them, "Well, I'll ask you again--how did Ms. Chen get in touch with you and hire you?"
I don't want to screw anything up either, but no captain in her right mind is going to let a bunch of random guys install something on her ship without proof that they're trustworthy. And I gather Lily has to initiate communications with us--we can't call her.
The idea was to involve more peoplein being able to leave the ship and adventure. I think part of the problems with this game is that the crew does not do things as a group and plot thread gets scattered. If you don't want it, that means that you can't rely on the ship to do its own survelance. You would still have to tell it where to go. I am just trying to make improovements. We have lost Nate too. We have to do something to quit hemmorahging players
So who's still in the game? Joni, Muskrat and myself? Well, that should work, since it's only companion, captain and security/mechanic. It might look a little weird when these three are together and off the ship. Maybe someone else wants to join the game? I'll ask Max_Power, because he liked Firefly, too.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
So who's still in the game? Joni, Muskrat and myself? Well, that should work, since it's only companion, captain and security/mechanic. It might look a little weird when these three are together and off the ship. Maybe someone else wants to join the game? I'll ask Max_Power, because he liked Firefly, too.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
It feels to me like one of the problems is that what makes sense in terms of what's happening in the game world doesn't necessarily lend itself to the party all going out together. To take the most obvious example, we can't all visit CiCi's clients as a group. But also, when we were talking over strategy, our characters didn't feel a need to stick together until we actually got to deal with the actual diamonds and O'Rourke. And Nate's character chose, for good in-character reasons, to hide out in Stargazy for the duration of our time on Ariel. So we role-played ourselves into a situation where everyone's character didn't get to participate equally. I suspect another contributing factor is that we're not like a D&D party, where they deliberately go looking for trouble. Our characters are trying to avoid trouble--and it comes looking for us.
Yeah, I know what you mean, Muskrat. But as far as it looked last time, CiCi's customer visits weren't actually that long. Which allows the other two characters to act without her. Or wait for her.
We lost Nate, too? Damn it.
So, Captain, do we keep Petr or not?
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
Well, I don't feel strongly about it, so my inclination is to play it in character--if the mechanics can convince Amelia that their from Lily or if Lily calls back to tell Amelia about the autopilot, she'll let them install it and fire Petr (very, very carefully). If not, she keeps Petr until she hears otherwise from Lily. Joni, do you have any preferences for an autopilot or NPC pilot?
