Today was my f2f group’s annual all-day get together. Apart from myself, 5 were invited. One no show and one late-comer. We had planned to just do some board games, card games, maybe a quick RPG session… anything goes.

I’d been planning all week to run a one-shot of Coriolis – The Third Horizon as a surprise game. I like the system, I like the setting, and I felt I could run it partly on the fly if needed.

I’d written a one page adventure outline/intro, and rolled 4 pre-generated character concepts;

• Pilot > Freighter Pilot (female)
• Operative > Spy (male)
• Soldier > Mercenary (male)
• Scientist > Medicurg (female)

Group Concept was Freetraders with the Everything is for Sale group talent.

As we started with three players, the first three pregens were snapped up. The groups patron, Aldair Jubal (Jubal’s Imports and Exports) — to whom they owe over 1,000,000 birr for the spacecraft they ‘own’ — had contacted the characters to get them to collect a shipment from the city of Mehriba on the planet Lauba.

Their craft, the Nazralus, was docked at Coriolis, and after a quick Pilot check to get out of the space station, they headed for the journey to Lauba…

Once successfully landed at Mehriba (described as a pre-war Aleppo, or even Mos Eisley), the landing admin checks noted a previous security alert placed on the ship (for an altercation with Hyperion Logistics at Aram’s Ravine on Jina), and said that it had to be called in to security. After a Manipulation check, 100 birr ensured that the admin officer ignored the note.

They set out to find their contact at Okreem Bazaar not too far from the spacecraft landing field (like Las Vegas plane graveyard). They met their well-to-do contact surrounded by pillows and a harem, in a club backroom, where the haze of arrash hung in the air. Giving them directions to the warehouse where the shipment was stored, they were ushered out by the contacts bodyguards, who said they would escort them to the warehouse. Meeting some friends on the way, the bodyguards stopped to talk, and shooed the characters on to the warehouse to catch up later.

Once at the warehouse, the door was opened using the security coded lock and in they went. A rear door was slightly open, which was closed by the Mercenary. They found the cargo shipment and a grav loader and as they started to load crates, five mercenary raiders leapt out from their hiding locations. Using cover and fire support, the Mercenary and three raiders were downed. The remaining two mercenaries fled. At that point, the contacts bodyguards arrived and helped remove the bodies and help load the grav platform.

A short time later, they arrived with the load, and with a wink the admin officer waved the grav platform through to load up. A quick Pilot check later, and they were on their way out of orbit. After cracking open a few crates, they found that the cargo was full of rifles and grenades. As this was a one-shot, they characters had the choice of…

a) Heading back to Coriolis, and passing the cargo to Aldair.

or

b) Making a run for the portals and jumping systems with the cargo.

They went for b.

A great game, and a lot of fun. I think there is some mileage to be had here. A few rules cropped up that I wasn’t sure about, but made player-friendly rulings to keep the game fun and fast. There’s nothing more satisfying about rolling a pile of six-sided die… feels like a Fireball or a Lightning Bolt, or a lot of Warhammer 40K to-hit rolls.