Rickardian Space

Turn 1 "Alright guys, lets make this quick - nobody likes these briefings." Shapiro was looking over her tablet as the rest of the crew wandered in. "Lets start with the financials, we made a three credit payment for this cycle, and after interest that leads us with thirteen credits on the Joy Division's mortgage, so lets try to keep it together, at least until we pay it off..."

Shapiro continued, "As for our general financials, our expenses were three credits for the debt service and a credit for our allowances, leaving us with ten credits in our account, so we are not rich but we are nowhere near going bankrupt..."

"Okay, old business... lets go with reports, who would like to go first?"

Gujic then stood, "So Domhail and I went out and hit the markets. We manage a few trades, we did knock out the budget of two credits, but managed to find eight starship fuel crates and Domhail managed to get us a pretty solid set of repair kit parts. So, I would say that is a definite success..."

Gujic and Domhail were assigned to trade, also spent 2 CR to get an additional roll on the trade table, two results of find fuel for a total of 8 credits of fuel, and a result of find something: fixer.

"Didn't really want to follow that up, but I did do some surveying and found absolutely nothing..." Hayden sheepishly added.

Heyden was assigned exploration, evident a result with no effect was rolled.

Shapiro turned, "Deion?"

"You were there, you know, we picked up a new sucker," Al-Karem smiled, "everyone, this is our new crew member, Pradip."

Shapiro and Al-Karem were assigned recruitment and recruited Pradip Eldad Sevaggio Human Reaction: 2, Speed: 5, Combat Skill: 0, Toughness: 3, Savvy: 2. Background: Bureaucrat, Motivation: Technology, Class: Petty Criminal. Selvaggio brought with him a Screen Generator and credits.

"And finally, how is the practice going Elia?" Shapiro asked

"You know, getting those targets that need to get got." Baldi's answer caused Shapiro's eyebrow to raise.

"Alright, finally lets talk about the mission. We know that there is an ancient data core here that is worth quite a bit of money, but we do not have many leads on that and the Messengers have made quite the offer so that sounds like what we are going to go with. It is a simple escort mission, get one of their doctors to an old medical outpost that they are going to reopen. We hear there are some scavengers but it should be a quick and easy insertion."

The rivals did not catch the crew, a quest, for a data core, was rolled, but the high reward Messengers of Atonement mission was too tempting.

The Joy Division story starts on the planet of Yinratter. Yinratter is a frontier world, primarily known for its busy markets and the crew did numerous jobs on the great planet. Yinratter does not require a license and has the trait of Busy Markets.

Looking at various records of the Joy Division (the ship) and the Joy Division Company (the Crew), we have been able to put together a few small details about the early days.

First, we know that the Joy Division was a decommissioned science vessel, gutted and purchased with a fair amount of upfront money, leaving the Company with a small debt of 15 credits by the time they arrived on Yinratter. In addition, we know that the Company had approximately 14 credits in ready cash reserves at this point.

In addition, the Company had 7 Story Points and 4 Quest Rumors at the beginning of the Campaign.

We also know that by the time they arrived at Yinratter, the crew had a number of contacts on the planet, including the secretive Messengers of Atonement and the Mowiso Corporation, both of whom had offered the crew a contract.

The Messengers of Atonement is a Secretive Group, but Persistant, and had offered a job with a +3, roll twice and take the highest pay rate, with no expiration date.

Interstellar Mowiso is a Corporation that offered a job with +1 danger pay, against Veteran Opposition and no expiration date.

Additionally, Elia Estera Baldi had been accused of hacking into the Freedom Credits Alliance mainframe. Agents of the Freedom Credits Alliance, a soulless libertarian think tank that adamantly argued that the only measure of personal liberation was current profits.

The Freedom Credits Alliance is an Interested Parties rival, and their typical troop type are "Soulless" AI Bots.

In addition the crew started with the following equipment: Boarding Saber, Blade, Machine Pistol, 2 Colony Rifles, Infantry Laser, 2 Plasma Rifles, Scrap Pistol, Communicator, Nerve Adjuster, and an Assault Blade.

-- blog entry on the origin of the Joy Division Crew

This chapter is the campaign start and crew generation part of the campaign. Since I am doing it from memory, there are some things that may be left out. Rules asides will be made in italics.

The campaign was generated using the following rules and decisions. I am calling it "Joy Division", because it proceeds the New Order. I have no elite ranks as this is my first campaign. I will be using six as the crew size, normal difficulty, no story track, and the completion of 50 turns as the victory conditions.

"So, you want to know about the Joy Division? Well, I do not know much but maybe I can fill you in 'bout that crew at the beginning. Evidently, they had met on a previous job, and nobody is really sure how a band of 'somewhat honorable bandits', as Old Jo called them, managed to get a loan on an old starship, but they did.

"The leader back then was a woman named Shapiro... yeah, you are right, Breanna Hilde Shapiro, that was her name. Evidently, she had been an agent of the Unity, recruited from the rough slums of a frontier mega-city. But by the time the crew gathered together she had been working as a Mercenary for a while, always looking for a bit of stability. Breanna Hilde Shapiro: Unity Agent Reaction: 2, Speed: 4, Combat Skill: 1, Toughness: 3, Savvy: 0, Luck: 1. Background: Lower Mega-City Class, Motivation: Order, Class: Mercenary.

"Now when she was recruiting her partners, she was know to interview them with a pick-pocket from the ruins of one of the peripheral wars... yeah Al-Karim, that is it, Deion, I think his name was. Supposedly, he had a way of reading the interviewees, and he would be responsible for recruiting for a while. Closest thing that crew had to a human relations department.

Deion Ald Al-Karim Empath Reaction: 1, Speed: 5, Combat Skill: 0, Toughness: 3, Savvy: 0. Background: War-Torn Hellhole, Motivation: Wealth, Class: Petty Criminal.

"In fact, they got them a whole band of genetic freaks, including one of those experimental people, who had escaped from her enclave and was rumored to have tormented some local soulless. They called her Baldy, I don't know why, she had a thick mane of hair as I recall...Oh, her name was Baldi? I guess that makes sense, Shapiro always called her Elia though...

Elia Estera Baldi Stalker Reaction: 1, Speed: 5, Combat Skill: 0, Toughness: 3, Savvy: 1. Background: Isolationist Enclave, Motivation: Escape, Class: Hacker.

"And then there was the mutant, Hayden. She had known Shapiro as a child, but not well as she moved around quite a bit. Always praying, that one made me nervous. Krista Tacita Hayden Mutant Reaction: 1, Speed: 4, Combat Skill: 0, Toughness: 3, Savvy: 0. Background: Lower Mega-City Class, Motivation: Faith, Class: Nomad.

"Finally, there were the two humans, the artist, Chikondi who was devoted to the Joy Division, and the romantic, Domhail, who was crazy enough to think that rough-necking the galaxy was the key to finding true love. Honestly, those two were the crazies. Boli Marius O'Domhail Human Reaction: 1, Speed: 4, Combat Skill: 0, Toughness: 4, Savvy: 1. Background: Mining Colony, Motivation: Romance, Class: Starship Crew.

Chikondi Nadya Gujic Human Reaction: 1, Speed: 4, Combat Skill: 0, Toughness: 3, Savvy: 1. Background: Comfortable Mega-City Class, Motivation: Loyalty, Class: Artist.

"Yeah, that was the original crew, they were the ones who put the funding together.... - Taken from an interview with Nesim Kuno, a bartender from Yinratter, where the crew was reputed to formed, or at least went on their earliest known missions.

So, this is an index/Table of Contents entry for my first Five Parsecs from Home Campaign. I am calling this campaign after the name of the first starship for this campaign, the Star Transport Joy Division (as it always proceeds the New Order). Chapters:

Preface, Part One: The Starship Joy Division Crew Preface, Part Two: The Beginning