Cybertech and modding specialist (Isond's Q&A)

[Isond Vaal]

Ran into the fact that Banner had been the equivalent of those comfort re-watches folks are doing through the pandemic because brains like the well-known grooves rather than the unknown when the world is kind of shaky; while this was the new series to discover and I didn't have nearly the mental bandwidth I thought I had to dig into it. Thanks to everyone who helped me make things work without the deep lore knowledge or comfortable familiarity with the system. Apologies to those whose threads faded with the workweek or stuttered along.

It was fun to see everyone in this smaller setting and get familiar with the wackiness of these dice. Also enjoyed being able to be of some mechanical use assisting with modding...which I had not realized were quite as big a thing as they turned out to be.

Not sure there's a lot of questions out there, but happy to answer if there are.

[Ava Serala]

You got to be everybody's friend by bringing along the mechanic! Play one in a bigger game and that exacerbates even more...

I didn't get to see a lot of Isond going full tech nerd. Did she end up exploring that "more machine" side?

[Isond Vaal]

It tended to be more subtle scene setting when she was doing mechanics/slicing since her hands were the tools for those things, being pretty much entirely mechanical. So they'd be stripped of the synthskin to work. Likewise, she's pretty much always recording with the neural recorder for later review and saving important bits, also pretty subtle.

But with the pile of credits and some time, she'll be picking up the biofeedback regulator and adding some more cybernetics. So somewhere off in the background of future games, she's definitely becoming more machine than organic over time.

[HK-51]

I really loved our pregame thread, sorry for dropping the VIrgo stuff later

[Isond Vaal]

I really loved our pregame thread, sorry for dropping the VIrgo stuff later

<3 No worries. That pregame was really quite fun in getting a glimpse into the world of free droids. I plan to do some post-game hunting into the mystery of VIRGO. HK is welcome to join in if he doesn't have other plot goals!

Always good to play with you. Most everyone got a bit bogged down in RL this game, it's just part of not all being like...college-aged anymore. XD

[HK-51]

Ugh...tell me about it. College-me, man...

(thinks back to SH)

Yarp...I'm auld now!

I may join you on that, gonna need to figure some things out.

[Chomaron Paladash]

I enjoyed how quirky Isond was, and it was fun to have another pre-game connection. I'm glad you found that helpful, it can be tough to break in to a new system!

Having played the mechanic type before I enjoyed not making any mechanics rolls for a change Glad I was able to bring Isond into the Salky Crew, even if only for a while.

I'm definitely keen to have Isond help me get those cyber avionics installed. Seems like the sort of thing Chomps would want a friend to do.

What was your impression of the system?

[Isond Vaal]

What was your impression of the system?

A bit more up front character sheet accounting than I'm fond of with how vital equipment is, but it flowed out of the way pretty quickly once things got started.

I like the narrative options the dice open up, though I feel like they're more likely to create that swingy "succeeding at crazy things and then a space monster tries to eat the ship!" kind of story beats from the movies when you're at the table working just one group story vs. the more diffuse thing that PbP is.

Coming from R&K systems, the fact that your dice pool is only the highest of your trait/skill feels kind of like I'm being shorted. XD

I think overall, it feels solid for what it wants to do, and is fun without getting overwhelming (ok...I didn't do combat, which probably would have been kind of overwhelming this go around). Won't be my favorite system to go to, and I may never dig hard enough at it to want to run it myself, but just fine to play in.

[Faily]

Thank you for playing!

So glad you decided to give it a try.

What was the inspiration behind Isond?

[Isond Vaal]

First the practical end of looking at that spreadsheet and aiming for a role. She started out Slicer and then I happened across some of the fun cybertech and drifted thataway, which added a lot more Mechanics to the mix. With both of those being Int skills, that drove quite a bit of the build. The Recorder/Vessel seemed like the sort of thing a rather low on the food chain type might have during an early criminal career as a courier of some sort.

Having something go very badly as a background event that I could work with to 1. get her off of home planet, 2. offer a definite break spot to fit in 'how did she move into Slicing/Mechanics?' and 3. a memory break is kind of handy for a player with a shallow grasp of a deep setting. (a good while later, when actually starting to write things, it finally occured to me that my subconscious was borrowing a strong thread from Johnny Mnemonic...oh well)

Addy's player poked me about background connections shortly after I'd queried the playerbase about planets and settled on Coruscant, which fleshed out the underlayer kids bit and solidified the "something went badly" part a bit more.

The gender fluidity was one of those places where the character talked back, and I went, sure...that's going to be a bit of a challenge for writing when I'm tired.

[Adrienna D'avir]

I'm late to my posting here!

Thank you so much for investing in the backstory connection with me! As I've said privately iirc, it was a really wonderful addition to my character and I absolutely loved playing at it during our scenes!

Trying out a new type of question here! Looking back over the course of the game and the design of Isond, what was the one thing you liked most about them? I'm wondering at something you did during her character creation or over the course of the game that you felt really set the mood/vibe on her or just something that sticks out when you look back and gets that "I really liked that" thought going.

[Isond Vaal]

I'm glad it worked so well on your end too. Thanks again for floating the idea. ^^

Isond was kind of a starter character for the setting, so I didn't have a ton of expectation. But the cyber side of things...kind of building herself anew and becoming more machine over time, really pinged interestingly off of HK, even if it was mostly just that pregame thread. Talk of a gun with a soul, and a droid shaman, etc. and then chatting with Virgo were all kind of a neat counterpoint.

Which then fed into that conversation with Addy musing about identity, and the persistence thereof. Not something that necessarily shifted the direction of anything. I don't think I was able to be active enough for major directions _to_ shift, but interesting background in her head.