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Zenan Plains - Site Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Mauron on April 16, 2018, 05:42:10 am

Title: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on April 16, 2018, 05:42:10 am
I just finished the second session of the campaign, following the Fiery Trial module.

The Drazi Agent (this setting's rogue)/Trader and the Human Soldier (this setting's fighter)/Telepath left Babylon 5 to investigate a research facility operated by the employers of the guy who hired the party. Everyone involved is secretive about who exactly they are, but they're part of Interplanetary Expeditions, the same group that led the mission to Za'Ha'Dum, along with others, some less legal than others.

The group had to briefly exit Hyperspace in one sector (Why? I understand the benefit in the module, but having to exit Hyperspace here makes no sense) near a Drazi outpost, where their ship was searched and then had to wait for a Drazi warship to jump to Hyperspace (Which they'll encounter later).

After arriving on the planet, they scouted the expedition's campsite. The whole place is looted and trashed. They find some notes by the team leader, indicating a new discovery in the ruins. After entering the main dome, they decided to send two people back to the ship (one player and one NPC) to power the dome. We stopped there for the night because people were getting tired, and if the party splits up, the Llort that attacked this place will try to ambush the people that are separated.

I'll have some more comments tomorrow.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on April 16, 2018, 08:51:47 am
Nice!

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The Drazi Agent (this setting's rogue)/Trader and the Human Soldier (this setting's fighter)/Telepath left Babylon 5 to investigate a research facility operated by the employers of the guy who hired the party. Everyone involved is secretive about who exactly they are, but they're part of Interplanetary Expeditions, the same group that led the mission to Za'Ha'Dum, along with others, some less legal than others.

I had to look up Interplanetary Expeditions; they went under my radar during the series, and upon looking at the B5 wiki, there were quite a few episodes with them -- including being over the Icarus mission to Za'Ha'Dhum ("if you go to Za'Ha'Dhum you will die" ~ can't not say it). RIP Ana Sheridan.

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The group had to briefly exit Hyperspace in one sector (Why? I understand the benefit in the module, but having to exit Hyperspace here makes no sense) near a Drazi outpost, where their ship was searched and then had to wait for a Drazi warship to jump to Hyperspace (Which they'll encounter later).

Was there not a jumpgate in the target sector? I'm curious why, mechanically speaking, you'd have to drop out for a single sector just to jump back in. I didn't think hyperspace/jumpgates worked like that. Unless, of course, ya know, plot.

Quote
After arriving on the planet, they scouted the expedition's campsite. The whole place is looted and trashed. They find some notes by the team leader, indicating a new discovery in the ruins. After entering the main dome, they decided to send two people back to the ship (one player and one NPC) to power the dome. We stopped there for the night because people were getting tired, and if the party splits up, the Llort that attacked this place will try to ambush the people that are separated.

Nice! I always forget about the Llord to be honest. Btw, are there racial limitations? Like, could I hypothetically be a Gaim if I played? What about a First One race? I assume no to the later, but everyone loves being a snowflake when they play D&D. :D
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on April 16, 2018, 03:15:23 pm
Was there not a jumpgate in the target sector? I'm curious why, mechanically speaking, you'd have to drop out for a single sector just to jump back in. I didn't think hyperspace/jumpgates worked like that. Unless, of course, ya know, plot.

The whole point was to have the players see the Drazi Sunhawk at this point, so it wouldn't be a complete surprise when it shows up at the end of the module. It's also supposed to happen on day 1 of an 8 day journey, but based on the star charts provided, it should be more on day 7.

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Nice! I always forget about the Llord to be honest. Btw, are there racial limitations? Like, could I hypothetically be a Gaim if I played? What about a First One race? I assume no to the later, but everyone loves being a snowflake when they play D&D. :D

There's a whole book on the Gaim, which includes two Gaim breeds you can play as, the Ambassador/Explorer breed seen in the show, and a larger Warrior breed. They've pretty much covered every race in the show, and a bunch of races from the books.

They've got Vorlon and Shadow stats, but they'd only be playable in special circumstances. All the other races are available barring extinction or introduction to the series. Dilgar are out in 2258, some of the ancient races from the last great war are out unless it's a campaign set then, in which case Humans would be out. There's a race that's first made contact with the rest of the galaxy around the time of Legend of the Rangers that wouldn't be available yet.

The module is a little lower in quality than I'd like. There are some things that are detailed better than others. They mention there are seven prefab tents and a large dome at the campsite, but its hard to tell the exact size or material from the description provided. They didn't expect Drazi players or players that speak Drazi, because there are multiple NPCs that are causally racist towards Drazi when discussing things, and when you meet the Drazi, the module specifies "they speak in Drazi unless addressing you", but don't explain what they say the rest of the time.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on April 26, 2018, 11:59:20 pm
Finally had another session. When one player and an NPC left to go back to the ship to grab a power generator, they were ambushed by the Llort, who wanted access to the ship. They relayed information to the pilot who let the defense systems take care of the intruders.

The players were able to negotiate with the captured Llort to return the scientists they had, and provide them passage off the planet, and away from the Drazi authorities looking for them. The scientists were rescued, and the Llort were turned over to the Drazi rather quickly.

I'm going to stop using the Fiery Trail campaign after this. At no point did they mention how many scientists were in the camp, the map shows 6 tents but the module describes 7, the tents are poorly described (no size, or real description of the material beyond "prefabricated"), the pointless drop from Hyperspace in one sector, it doesn't account for Drazi players, and other miscellaneous complaints.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on April 27, 2018, 01:23:22 am
Are you acting as the DM for your B5 campaign?

Also, I finally watched Legend of the Rangers last night... Next up is the movie precursor to Crusade (the name escapes me at the moment). It was actually better than I expected, as I've read some pretty lackluster reviews for it.

However... the female weapons specialist thing really came across as stupid. I liked the idea that she somehow interfaced with the ship and her martial combat translated to the attacks of the ship, but boy was it idiotic to see it actually play out.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on April 27, 2018, 04:26:24 am
Yeah, I am. That's how I can get a group together for Babylon 5 so easily.

I was disappointed when Legend of the Rangers didn't take off.

I remember that weapons system looking cool when I first saw it, but that was some time ago, so maybe it would seem different now.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on May 02, 2018, 12:46:53 pm
Tell me your updates from your games! I am living vicariously through you. :)
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on May 02, 2018, 02:13:54 pm
The game is run on Thursdays, so no updates at the moment.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on May 04, 2018, 03:39:25 am
The most recent session had a nervous young Centauri ask the party to retrieve some rare Human alcohol, known as Stan's Root Beer.

The party happily accepted the job, and brought back some root beer beer along with the requested root beer.

Londo was quite pleased with the actual alcohol, and the party's initiative on that front.

There was also some trading done while fetching the root beer from Proxima 3.

This session ran a little short because the trading aspect will become a little heavier soon. It seems we'll have a Space and Wolf theme (Spice and Wolf in space), and I need to come up with some better trading rules.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on May 04, 2018, 09:33:39 am
Bahaha! Did Londo try to pass some off to the Minbari? Force poor Lennier to try some (I assume this is non-alcoholic root beer and Londo is just under the impression it's alcoholic).

One of the things that confused me about Babylon 5 was the inaccuracies in time lengths with space travel. Early in the series they would often lament how hard it was to acquire certain goods due to being so far out; specific examples include coffee (so bad that Ivanova secretly grew in the public gardens), whatever stuff Girabaldi needed to make his Italian dishes, and eggs. Several times they lamented the fact that they couldn't get real, genuine eggs.

By those merits, it sounds like it takes weeks or more to get to B5. But then, late in the series they get the ability to travel to and from Earth in a matter of days. If that's the case, why would it be so challenging to acquire normal trading goods? You'd think things like coffee and eggs would be basic staples easy to transport and supply to the B5 human demographics. Surely there's a store specializing in human foodstuffs that would love to sell them.

Just some food for thought. Maybe you can utilize some of these thoughts and integrate them into the trading aspects of your campaign?
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on May 04, 2018, 01:01:10 pm
Londo is not yet aware on how alcohol affects Minbari. He had thought it was alcoholic, and was quite disappointed to learn otherwise.

It occurred to my last night that the reason why Londo was under that impression is he had spoken about it to Garibaldi about drinks, and got an unhelpful reply.

Hyperspace moves at the speed of plot in the series, but from what I can see they'd be able to get coffee without issue no matter what. Fresh meat would be more of an issue, but frozen would be doable.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on May 12, 2018, 03:29:17 pm
Last week the Human Telepath/Soldier was replaced by a Brakiri Telepath/Lurker.

We had some roleplay introducing the new character, some selling of goods, and then onto the main plot.

Londo, quite pleased with the party's suggestion of Root beer beer, hired them to retrieve some Centuari artifacts from a current Narn colony, left behind during the occupation.

The Brakiri player made some progress on one of the great mysteries of the universe - that all sentient races have a dish that tastes identical to Swedish Meatballs, successfully determining that at least three races have such a thing (Brakiri, Narn, and Humans).

This particular Narn colony has limited Jump Gate access, the only charted route going through Centauri space.

They were quite pleased with the Breen, and that's where we wrapped up.

I think there will be an option for the players to help chart a new hyperspace route between here and the nearest Narn colony.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on May 13, 2018, 01:26:26 am
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Last week the Human Telepath/Soldier was replaced by a Brakiri Telepath/Lurker.

What happened to the Telepath character?

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The Brakiri player made some progress on one of the great mysteries of the universe - that all sentient races have a dish that tastes identical to Swedish Meatballs, successfully determining that at least three races have such a thing (Brakiri, Narn, and Humans).

This made me laugh. Clearly this character needs to identify the dish for each species. :) If the character has any sort of interest in academia, I'm sure some sort of doctoral analysis could come out of it...

Speaking of which, I can't remember -- is life in the Babylon 5 universe spontaneous? Star Trek TNG ended up revealing that all species are similar in biology (bipedal, two arms, etc) due to the fact that the genetic material was seeded across multiple planets. I can't recall Babylon 5 ever addressing this. It could always tie into the above -- that each species has a dish that tastes like Swedish meatballs! :)
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on May 13, 2018, 01:36:16 am
Player boredom, mostly. The original character was reassigned by Psi Corps.

Life evolved naturally in Babylon 5, but Telepathy did not. It was the result of Vorlon tampering with the genetics of the younger races to fight the Shadows.

The great universal mystery (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVLkxSSvegc).
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on May 13, 2018, 10:08:29 pm
Yeah, I knew the psionics were the work of the Vorlons. This is why, after the last Shadow War 2000 years ago, the Narn ended up killing off those of their own species with with the genetic capacity (which they later regretted).

Interesting enough, they also mentioned that the techno-mages were the same equivalent, except created by the Shadows. However, the techno-mages ultimately rebelled against their masters, took their new technology-based powers, and split.

By the way -- I had done a rewatch of B5 this year and have yet to watch Crusade. I always  LOVED the character of Marcus Cole. His whole LOtR Ranger-vibe and his collapsible Minbari bo-staff was wicked awesome. I remember watching season 4 as a kid and was devastated by his death.

Even in the rewatch I love his character. His sort of jovial snarkiness evaded me when I saw this in the mid-1990s, but now as an adult I dig it.

Regardless, I went to Jason Carter's website and found his email. I've never done fan mail before, so I was up late one night and on a whim decided to email him. He responded a few days later and we had a short little exchange.

He's an incredibly charming person in real life, at least from his emails. One of the things that stood out to me was how close he and Richard Biggs were; I had seen in videos from cons that they had been friends, but it was clear in our exchanges that they really were great friends. In fact, he was the one who brought up their friendship - he mentioned how he loved working with ALL of the staff, "including my very dear, greatly missed, friend Richard Biggs. We had so much fun."

I meant to tell you before. This was back in January/early February. :)
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on May 13, 2018, 11:10:56 pm
The Narn didn't kill off the Narn telepaths, the Shadows did that. I just checked my Babylon 5 Encyclopedia (http://b5books.com/) for reference.

Marcus was a fun character. "Would you like me to sing? I am the very model of a modern major general."

Good to know he's a nice person.

Babylon 5 has lost a fair number of actors for a 15 year old show. Jerry Doyle, Richard Biggs, Andreas Katsulas, Michael O’Hare, Stephen Furst, and Jeff Conaway, may they rest in peace.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on May 13, 2018, 11:26:48 pm
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Babylon 5 has lost a fair number of actors for a 15 year old show. Jerry Doyle, Richard Biggs, Andreas Katsulas, Michael O’Hare, Stephen Furst, and Jeff Conaway, may they rest in peace.

Right? The B5 curse.

Tim Choate, who played Zathras, Zathras, and Zathras also passed. It's sad.

I always wondered why Michael O'Hair left after S1. Even though they addressed his eventual ascension to become Valen, it's clear that was probably intended for end-of-series conclusion. It's sad to find out years later that it was all due to O'Hare's mental illness. :( I have a lot of respect for JMS for helping him out and being so gracious about his struggles.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on May 13, 2018, 11:49:29 pm
Poor Zathras.

One thing I remember about learning the truth about Michael O'Hare's passing was that J. Michael Straczynski originally promised to "take it to the grave" in regards to his mental illness, but O'Hare insisted "take it to my grave" instead.

Also JMS had offered to put the show on hiatus for him.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on May 18, 2018, 04:42:31 am
Just watched this comment about the B5/DS9 situation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtaDXnB1YsA)

Tonight's game had the players negotiating with an important Narn on the isolated colony of Ardun, to remove some remaining Centuari artifacts. He was more than happy to have the players act as trash collectors, and convinced them to investigate the project charting a new hyperspace route to better connect this colony to the rest of Narn space.

The Narn had reached a stumbling block in their scouting due to an unknown, undiscovered jump gate that wasn't found through sensors outside of hyperspace. It turns out it was in a system located in a spacial distortion the prevented detection from outside.

There was a small Narn colony inside the distortion, from a ship that had been intended as a colony ship, and ended up crashing here when passing out of hyperspace.

The players helped a few of the Narns make it back to Ardun, the first colony, and hauled the  Centuari garbage back to contact of Londo's, who paid for a couple larger items, and left the smaller things with the party. After checking the items, the players determined one had a connection to House Mollari, which the players gave to Londo, and closed out the night drinking.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on May 21, 2018, 02:38:01 pm
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Just watched this comment about the B5/DS9 situation

I love both B5 and DS9... but it's quite clear that DS9 took the high level concept of B5 and twisted it on its head. I firmly believe that they stole it and made it there own. The end results are very different, but it still stands. Sort of makes me sad because B5 could have been bigger had it not been for DS9, but I do still love both. I can't help it.

As for the events of the game...

So what comes next? It sounds like a lot of gameplay could come out of the previously undiscovered Narn colony. Lots of adventure to be had, caverns to explore, loot to be had, money to be made, political shenanigans, the whole shebang!
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on May 21, 2018, 02:59:34 pm
I missed a lot of DS9 because it was part of an early Saturday afternoon block of Sci-Fi programming, at least in my area. I never remembered to watch it. Earth Final Conflict, Andromeda, and some others got mixed in there too.

The campaign has become trade focused, so they wouldn't be likely to poke around the colony at the moment. I'm trying to come up with a good larger plot for the players, but I'm not sure what yet. I know at one point I'll have to ask the players "What do you want?"
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on May 21, 2018, 04:43:24 pm
Quote
I missed a lot of DS9 because it was part of an early Saturday afternoon block of Sci-Fi programming, at least in my area. I never remembered to watch it. Earth Final Conflict, Andromeda, and some others got mixed in there too.

Me too. I didn't really watch it from front to back until two years ago in a several month-long Netflix binge. I am actually hoping to rewatch EFC and Andromeda here soon; I haven't seen it since it originally aired!

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The campaign has become trade focused, so they wouldn't be likely to poke around the colony at the moment. I'm trying to come up with a good larger plot for the players, but I'm not sure what yet. I know at one point I'll have to ask the players "What do you want?"

OOOOoooh!!! Good question. If the story is going with a more mercantile/trade focus, what will they do with financial goals? Like, what will they save up for? Do they have to expense travel/food/apartments/etc?

Our first campaigns for D&D did not take those into consideration; we just ran fast and loose with immersion. We started a new campaign a month or two ago and are having to really plan and watch our finances; room rentals (or the free camping out in nature, but with a dice roll that could result in unforeseen complications), food and beer, travel rations, etc. I'm loving the immersion and currently being super frugal and saving up my gold so I can buy a folding boat (and turn it into a mobile pop-up tavern).

Any sort of that immersion/goal setting from your characters? I would assume the B5 universe is a bit more grounded in reality than D&D, so opportunities to really get rich would likely be less grandiose and based more on real world equivalent opportunities.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on May 21, 2018, 05:32:03 pm
Me too. I didn't really watch it from front to back until two years ago in a several month-long Netflix binge. I am actually hoping to rewatch EFC and Andromeda here soon; I haven't seen it since it originally aired!

I saw all of Andromeda a few years ago. I like to ignore most of season 5 from the plot.

Quote
OOOOoooh!!! Good question. If the story is going with a more mercantile/trade focus, what will they do with financial goals? Like, what will they save up for? Do they have to expense travel/food/apartments/etc?

Our first campaigns for D&D did not take those into consideration; we just ran fast and loose with immersion. We started a new campaign a month or two ago and are having to really plan and watch our finances; room rentals (or the free camping out in nature, but with a dice roll that could result in unforeseen complications), food and beer, travel rations, etc. I'm loving the immersion and currently being super frugal and saving up my gold so I can buy a folding boat (and turn it into a mobile pop-up tavern).

Any sort of that immersion/goal setting from your characters? I would assume the B5 universe is a bit more grounded in reality than D&D, so opportunities to really get rich would likely be less grandiose and based more on real world equivalent opportunities.

I'm definitely going to have to do some more bookkeeping details. I'm not a big fan of that, but it's campaign appropriate.

I'm going to have to toy with some further ideas before I settle on something.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on May 22, 2018, 09:48:12 am
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I saw all of Andromeda a few years ago. I like to ignore most of season 5 from the plot.

I think I tapered off around season 3 or 4. The last season was when they were trapped in that binary solar system, wasn't it? I was like you and caught it all on the weekend blocks -- Hercules and Xena, Stargate, Star Trek, Andromeda, Earth Final Conflict. There were a few other scifi shows I liked as part of UPN around the time Star Trek Voyager was airing. Seven Days being the only one I can remember off the top of my head.

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I'm going to have to toy with some further ideas before I settle on something.

If you ever want to throw ideas around, you know where to find me.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on May 22, 2018, 02:30:08 pm
I think I tapered off around season 3 or 4. The last season was when they were trapped in that binary solar system, wasn't it?

Yeah, that was the one. I ignore the part where they got caught there, and all the Paradine crap, which is wildly inconsistent anyway.

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I was like you and caught it all on the weekend blocks -- Hercules and Xena, Stargate, Star Trek, Andromeda, Earth Final Conflict. There were a few other scifi shows I liked as part of UPN around the time Star Trek Voyager was airing. Seven Days being the only one I can remember off the top of my head.

Cleopatra 2525 was in there, but I saw almost nothing of that. I have an episode from it that was stuck on a random DVD I have, possibly Sliders.

Quote
If you ever want to throw ideas around, you know where to find me.

I'm going to read through my Merchants, Traders, and Raiders book, and see what that can do for me. I'll probably tie Londo into it somehow, since the party has been in his good graces lately. Ooh, I bet I can do a tie-in to Born Into the Purple if the party is on station at the time.

I'll probably toss some more ideas here later.

Edit: No ideas thus far. Darn.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on May 23, 2018, 05:18:02 pm
A few ideas:

Day of the Dead and shenanigans. Drazi color wars. Purple files like you mentioned with Londo. What about making somebody head to that one sealed/lost grey deck to retrieve something or another?

What year is this campaign in? I think it's while Londo is still on B5. That could also change opportunities.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on May 23, 2018, 06:30:26 pm
The campaign is currently in 2258, between the Soul Hunter and Purple files episodes. I'll definitely tie into Drazi politics and and Brakiri Day of the Dead when we get there.

The purple files will happen in about two weeks in universe. Based on my one book, it's unclear who hired Trakis to find the files, or how he knew about them. I'll have to double check the episode again, but it seems like even G'Kar didn't know until Sinclair mentioned them.

I think there's some Centauri intrigue to be had there. This doesn't settle my ideas for this week, but starting next week I can do this alongside some of the existing trade stuff.

I think I'll need to create a race for Golians too.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on May 23, 2018, 11:40:22 pm
You know, you could have some mercantile quests involving pick up and transportation of precious cargo, only to find out they are Golian/Narn slaves. I had to look up Golians (and Trakis) to jog my memory, but secret Centauri slavers and human cargo seem fitting.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on May 23, 2018, 11:52:34 pm
I think I can work on the dual agent/trader multiclass stuff for the new idea. Trading as an excuse to do some intrigue.

Trakis was just a one off character, and the only Golian shown. My Babylon 5 encyclopedia missed them! It even has a Kosh knock-knock joke.

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Kosh.
Kosh who?
Gesundheit.

Edit: No game yesterday due to half the players being absent.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on June 06, 2018, 10:54:59 pm
The game has been on hiatus for a while because it's been too much stress for me. I'm either going to have some downtime while working out the latest plot idea, switch to a different Babylon 5 based campaign, switch to a Farscape campaign, or stop GMing for a while.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Lord J Esq on June 06, 2018, 11:01:47 pm
Quote
Babylon 5 has lost a fair number of actors for a 15 year old show. Jerry Doyle, Richard Biggs, Andreas Katsulas, Michael O’Hare, Stephen Furst, and Jeff Conaway, may they rest in peace.

Right? The B5 curse.

I've noticed that myself over the years. In contrast the various Star Trek series have always featured remarkable longevity on the part of their principals. When you compare Babylon 5 with its closest Star Trek contemporary, DS9, all the DS9 main cast are still alive, but with B5 it's like a brutal 50 percent death rate.


Poor Zathras.

One thing I remember about learning the truth about Michael O'Hare's passing was that J. Michael Straczynski originally promised to "take it to the grave" in regards to his mental illness, but O'Hare insisted "take it to my grave" instead.

Also JMS had offered to put the show on hiatus for him.

That was incredibly generous of JMS to offer to halt production, and very gracious of Michael O'Hare to want his story to be shared. I knew of O'Hare's mental illness when the story came out a while back, after he died, but I hadn't known those two details.

I am sorry to interrupt the thread! I just wanted to chime in.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on June 06, 2018, 11:09:41 pm
I've noticed that myself over the years. In contrast the various Star Trek series have always featured remarkable longevity on the part of their principals. When you compare Babylon 5 with its closest Star Trek contemporary, DS9, all the DS9 main cast are still alive, but with B5 it's like a brutal 50 percent death rate.[/quote[

Babylon 5 even had a couple Star Trek actors appear in it, Walter Koenig as Alfred Bester, and Majel Barrett as Lady Morella.

Quote
That was incredibly generous of JMS to offer to halt production, and very gracious of Michael O'Hare to want his story to be shared. I knew of O'Hare's mental illness when the story came out a while back, after he died, but I hadn't known those two details.

I was very moved by the whole story after it came out.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on July 03, 2018, 01:59:24 am
You still getting to play, Mauron?!
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on July 03, 2018, 02:57:26 am
I took some time off because it was becoming more stressful than fun, but I'm hoping to get back to it soon.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on July 03, 2018, 12:04:35 pm
Gotcha. I don't blame ya! Having to build custom campaigns - or adjust existing ones is both very stressful and incredibly time consuming.

I wrote out a D&D 5e mini campaign that was supposed to take 4 sessions or so; it ended up taking about 12 and required constantly finagling and reworking on my part. I probably spent 100 hours on design, and an untold amount of stress.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on July 12, 2018, 06:14:24 pm
I'm going to switch gears to Farscape for a while because it involves less prep work. Something about political intrigue and diplomacy is a little harder to get the right feel for than "Leviathan full of escaped prisoners gets into trouble."

Also if I want it's easier to modify a module from another system to work with Farscape than Babylon 5, and I didn't like the designs of the Babylon 5 modules.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on July 13, 2018, 12:14:46 am
Farscape > Babylon 5, anyway! Well, at least in my book. Farscape is more... well, fun. I've actually been slowly accumulating the comics that details events after the series ended, and I gotta say, assuming the comics really were future season plans, they're most excellent.

At what point in the timeline is the tabletop?

I wish I could play!!!
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on July 13, 2018, 12:52:01 am
Today we did character creation, but no gameplay. I'm not sure when I'll set it yet.

I've read those comics. They're good.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on July 13, 2018, 01:00:10 pm
So what's the party make up? Races/classes?
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on July 13, 2018, 01:46:55 pm
I'm still doing the gestalt characters, so double the class fun. One's a Tavlek Warrior/Tech, and the other's a Sheyang Warrior/Tech. They'll definitely be able to hit/fix things.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Boo the Gentleman Caller on July 13, 2018, 02:26:22 pm
Those are two ugly races, hahaha!

Can I join and play as a pilot? :D

I can just sit around on the ship and command drones to do things.
Title: Re: Babylon 5 Roleplaying Discussion.
Post by: Mauron on July 13, 2018, 03:28:01 pm
That would be an interesting experience, a player pilot. Move the DRDs all day.

There are pilots who aren't bonded to a Leviathan. They can be useful in combat.

Watching the show after looking at the roleplaying book made for an interesting experience. Some of the cast likes mentioning stats about their characters. "I am a Peacekeeper Commando." "I am a Luxan Warrior." "I am a 10th level Pa'u Priestess."