KS draft works have commenced

I am running a game for my wife and a friend of mine (via roll20 for him as he is in Ottawa and I am in Waterloo). We have a GEO Marshal (newly minted and newly arrived on Poseidon) and his GEO Scientist partner (aquaform, also new to the planet). They went through an opening scene of prepping for the trip and coming out of their capsules coughing up goo and the whole deal then got shipped downside to Haven. Hi-jinks ensued! I am, for the most part, using the adventures that exist for the game. I have limited time for prep but I have strung them together into something cohesive as a campaign.

There certainly is a crap ton of things to play with on the planet. They have done the criminal investigation thing but have also experienced a bunch of what the planet has to offer as well (including those pesky manta rays...) The arc is developing nicely actually. The marshal stepped off the boat all bright and shiny and looking to make a difference. Now he is more jaded and has had to do deals with the devil to get things done. The shine is slowly wearing off the badge as they brush into Internal Affairs, criminal organizations etc. The scientist is a GEO trained operative as well, just with a science background. Works very well with the marshal in covering skill areas that he just does not have. She has a background of having a fascination with Poseidon from the time she was on Earth. The brushes with the fauna of Poseidon are just like a lure for her to try and find out more. They are also heading to their new assignment in the Sierra Neuvos... more good times coming.

Actually they have a fair amount of sympathy for the Natives and not much love for the Corporations at this point. It comes down to methods for them. As long as the Natives are targeting Corps it seems like that is not so bad, but if innocents get harmed then they are not so keen. A fine line that will fail for them at some point. Moral grey for the win. It actually took quite a bit if time for the marshal to start to bend the rules. The scientist was far less rigid in approach so there were some great debates to be had over how to proceed a number of times.

They have managed to recruit a number of interesting characters into their circle from a number of different areas around the Archipelago. As they were recently tasked with forming a team to set up the new base of operations, they went back to a number of contacts they have made both within and without of GEO to create their small unit. Should be interesting to see how that all plays out. They do not all have the same perspective on what exactly needs to be done on the planet.

They are quite wary about the Aborigines having had a couple of brushes with them so far and been some of the only survivors each time. They know to be afraid of them but they are also curious as to what exactly is going on with them. What their motivations might be etc. They also have butted heads a couple of times now with the Gorchoffs and are now on that groups radar which is never a good thing. All around they are still testing the waters, so to speak, to try and figure out the exact lay of the land and try and figure out who the 'good' and 'bad' guys are in their minds.

Adventure-wise, they have played out variations on 'Strange Bedfellows' as an opener, 'The Expedition' (got some NPC contacts out of that one as well as their first encounter with the Aborigines), 'Dinner and a Show' which later netted them another member of their team (an explosive removal GEO trooper), 'Jenny Mnemonic' and they now have her as a contact (I linked her with Internal Affairs and Mr. Reason), 'Gorkytown' once they got back to Haven, 'Distant Deeps' that went as well as you could expect, a variant on 'Triple Play' that led to their second contact with the Aborigines, a variant on 'Flight Hazards', and that is where we are now. In between those were more connective tissue encounters etc. that have helped keep it a coherent story line and introduced a large number of NPCs that they have interacted with (and recruited in some cases to be simply and 'eyes and ears' person to coming in for the win with GEO. Enemies have been made as well of course...

With only a few players and playing roughly weekly/bi-weekly, you can cover a lot of territory! The pandemic is not shakes that is for sure, but it did provide the roll20 platform to play the game with my old university buddy across the province from us. Busy though - yeah. We just got told we are doing 2 more weeks of online learning with our classes so there has been a ton of extra work on the tech end of things! (I am a teacher by the by).

Glad to get you thinking! I love the setting and we are having a blast exploring it. Even with the time we have put in, there is still a ton of plot points out there that we have not even begun to scratch at. Plenty more good gaming to be had!

If you are curious to see what we are doing, you can fire me an email address and I can add you to the roll20 to look around. Keeping to the 2 players for now but it might give you some inspiration for setting up your own game.

It is a great game to play with a small group for sure. It is just myself, my wife and one friend giving it a go at the moment and it is working out great. Honestly, pre-covid, you would never have caught me playing games online. Face to face is so much better but circumstances have changed things up and now I run or play in a number of online games. Partly it is just to keep in touch with our friends! It is funny playing an online game with people who only live 10-15 minutes away. Hope you are successful in getting a game of BP going - lots of fun material to play with and more coming!

It's not that difficult really. I've been doing it for a few years now. I had a regular D&D game that was being played using Discord and Roll20. I've also done a number of other games using Zoom and Roll20, specifically for games streamed on Twitch, but also some non-streamed games. I even did a demo of the BP Quickstart for a stream and it seemed to go well.

I've been running a "Blue Planet"(ish) game on Roll20/Discord now since the "Interesting Times" began. Being part of a FTF gaming club (Bournemouth, UK), we transferred all our activities over to "Virtual" and, AFAIK they've all (about 5 games run at the same time) continued much in the same vein, albeit several people experience sporadic technical difficulties (esp with Discord, which sometimes seems to have a mind of its own)...

The BIG issue in running the games is actually sound (most people haven't got video, so we don't use it), the flow of the game is totally different with no visual cues and it's more challenging for quieter players to become involved in games that are mostly social RP encounters. Thus the games tend to be slower... with lots of pregnant pauses...

Technically, running games isn't that much different, though the prep required to produce a visually exciting, interesting game is considerably more, especially if you produce it yourself. Many pre-made scenarios are available for "Common, popular systems" = aka D&D 5th, with very few others having only a handful with "complex systems" .. again Pathfinder and Call of Cthuhlu. There are more for Fantasy Grounds, but using that isn't as accessible, or affordable. The one advantage for GM's, is that there is a huge selection of "Youtube" videos to help, tech-phobic people (like me... )... 


My game, although it is set on Poseidon, doesn't use BP rules. As much as I would like to and know there is a Roll 20 character sheet available for BP.. I choose to run it using the 2d20 system instead, which mechanically is easier to use "virtually" (Mainly due to the interpretation and application of skill task difficulties). I provide the players with PDF copies of pre-gen characters... and only damage, conditions and resources are recorded using the characters in-game bio.

Game-wise, the setting is much the same as BP, but with the addition of some "Cthulueque" factors, Incorporate "Blurring" and some tech-paralysis (due to a AI "plague"). The background is essentially a mish-mash-up of Blue Planet, with elements from Mutant Chronicles and Eclipse Phase...