hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr2917.txt

Episode: 2917
Title: HPR2917: Stardrifter RPG Playtest Part 07
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2917/hpr2917.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-24 13:13:45

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This is HPR Episode 2917 entitled, Tardrifter RPG Playtest Part 07, and in part of the series,
Tabletop Gaming, it is hosted by Lost in Drunks, and in about 28 minutes long, and Carriman
Explicit flag. The summer is Lost in Drunks, and friends playtest are new, original RPG
system. Today's show is licensed under a CC hero license.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by archive.org.
Support universal access to all knowledge by heading over to archive.org forward slash donate.
Hello, this is Lost in Drunks, also known as David Collins Rivera. Welcome to Part 7 of the
Star Drifter role-playing game playtest. Today, we have Taj, Brin, and X1101.
Last time, the player characters found a way aboard the derelict ship, only to discover a
couple of people in the act of disassembling the interior. The fact that these two individuals were
wearing body armor and had rifles nearby was also noted, and the whole idea that these were
peace-loving hippies or hobos rather went out the airlock. Also, last time, I did a really
poor job of explaining the rules, and confused everybody, including myself. Let's see,
in the lead-up to entering the derelict ship, the players were extremely careful and employed
strategy and everything they did. And X1101, at least, proved that even in the future, duct tape
can do anything. Let's get into this part. As you're there, you think you hear some
machine noises coming from further deeper in the ship somewhere. It's not from the... You hear
these guys, but you're some loud other machine noises elsewhere as well. It's not the engines.
Well, to do anything, either we gotta get past these guys or we gotta get back in the boat,
go somewhere else. Where you are, if you're looking... If you look straight out, all that deck is
ripped up in front of the freeze tubes. Look towards aft down that way. That deck appears to be...
That deck appears to be undamaged. This part, either they have gotten to it yet or
just for the sake of getting around, they've left it apart. The lighting in here is normal. This is
what you would expect on a working ship. Okay, so obviously the ship has power to some areas.
Just not outside where they'd be noticed. So, would it be possible to sneak towards 19, you know,
aft without the guy, the guy in closest to us seeing? If you have stealthiness, you can give that a
roll if you do not, and still try. I do have it. I don't know if anybody else does. I don't. Yeah, no.
Well, do we want to try to sneak me there and see if I can leave frogs somewhere?
Yeah, at least she can kind of scout around. I hate to just have one person though. Does the NPC
have any sneak? That's a good question. Hold on. In her giant armor. That's true too. Yeah, you know,
she's got heavy armor. Yeah, she's she can't sneak even if she had just killed she can't sneak in
this armor. Yeah, she's gonna be the heavy. All right. What's she armed with? A pistol. Okay,
did mention that, sorry. And she does have it out because she saw you take your zone. So, it's up to you
guys. How you want to do this? As you're standing there, the guy that's closest to you moves one
further over away from you. Next, he's two because whatever it is, he just curses and
says, ah, nothing here. It keeps going. Okay, and the guy in the second person's on the opposite side.
Is on the opposite side. He's between, if you're looking on the left most freeze tube, he's not
between the left most and the next one over. He's between the next one over and that one.
Okay, so they're both working towards the center. Yeah, I say, let's try it and you guys just
cover me because if they catch me, I'm gonna run the screen like a small child. Okay. Run away,
run away. Okay, these roll, you're stilting us. I walk out of the airlock door, I trip and fall
flight on my face. I told you the ground, the deck was all torn open. Well, that's what happens.
I assume your world really badly, so there may have been a 20 involved.
Oh, yeah, that's a fail. That's a fail. And I do not have critical fail tables yet, so you're
locked out there. You might have hurt yourself, but no, you didn't hurt yourself, but you did fall
down. You did fall down. This guy turns around and just looks at you. He goes, who the hell are you?
He's just shocked that you're there. And I think it's time for initiative.
I got a 14. I got a six. Six. Wait, how do you, a six? What?
It's your deck's a deep 20, right? It's your deck's modifier like a potato.
Oh, lower is better, right? It's still an initiative. Lower is better. Yeah, lower is better.
Okay, so, okay, so I got a six. So I did pretty well, I guess you did pretty well. Okay.
Lost your lungs. Did you change that because I'm reading the
hang on, hang on. I'm getting. I'm looking at the combat page here and it says
a 1d20 plus decks. Plus your decks is what your, so you roll a 1d20. So he rolled a six. You rolled?
Right. So I have a total of 22. 22. That's what we're after. And you rolled a 14 or was that
with your decks? That was with my decks. Okay, so we got a 14 or 22.
At 25, including my decks. Oh, okay, so that's 25. And ties you had what again?
14. I had a 22 and Lyle, the five. Yeah, I rolled a 14. My decks is 11. So I believe that's 25.
All right. So the way this is going to run down is
while you go first, Rin, you will go second, then these guys get to do what they're going to do.
And then Margot and then time. There we go, figured out initiative, which is slower than I'd like.
All right. So, Lyle, what would you like to do? So I have a pair of pistols that I was intending
to wield a Kimbo. So I want any chand. Okay. I'm assuming I'm not going to get my full damage from
both of them. Why not? It's a pistol. If you hit, you hit. I mean, you may not get your full
dexability to hit with both of them, but that makes more sense. Yeah. If you hit, you're going to
get the same amount of damage. So then I don't really have rules for that, but we'll run it on the
fly. It's no problem. So if I'm reading this right, so I don't have combat pistols, I have combat
bladed. So I can I would make that with a minus two, correct? Correct. Correct. So my combat bladed
is 13. Okay. And I rolled a 12. 12 will not do on the first one because there's a minus two.
All right. And second one would have been an additional minus two. So it's a total minus four on
that one. And that's also a 12. So, okay. Bipping. You make a lot of noise, but that guy is hiding behind
the broken free stoop and bang bang. You miss him. A grin. Chip two. There's plenty of room in
that door to do whatever you want to do. Well, first, I have to push the button so you can hear what
I'm saying. So now that's done. I will take any deploy my shield. Okay. And the question was,
does that take up a whole action to do those two things? No, it does not. Okay. So I will then
I will fire them. Okay, go for it. This is your skill. Do you forget to push the button again?
Oh, no. I was just rolling. Okay. I rolled a 16 and I have an 18 unless there's any minuses.
There, in this case, there is not. You've hit that guy. And let's see what this is.
Damage is 1d6 plus 2. Hold on. Let's roll it in the box there. 3. Oh boy. 3. All right. He took
see, he's just put it as a PR3. You shoot him solidly in the chest, but it doesn't seem to have hurt him.
It seems as though his chest plate has absorbed that damage. Need me one of them. Yeah, they come in handy.
Let's see now. That's their attack. Okay. This guy, the closest one, he is squawking on the radio,
just as you thought he might. You can hear him with your little fracked wavelength thing on your
common. You can hear him very plainly, only a few meters away from you. We got intruders, intruders.
They're coming in. Debt two way. They're coming in through the airlock. The other guy in back
is trying to move forward, which is not actually wise because he's got to go on that torn up decking.
Does he manage that? Actually, he does, but he's going very slowly. It looks like he's trying to get
closer while also trying to use the freestubes as cover, but because the deck is all torn up,
maybe he did it himself. You don't know, but because the deck is all torn up, moving is very slow.
He's moving at quarter speed over that. He is able to make it to the next freestube
on his turn, but that's all he can do. Normally, he'd be able to move and fire, but he can't,
because it's taking up too much time. That's all that they do. The first guy was going for his
weapon, which he actually had left at the previous spot. It took him a lot of time to get a hold of
that and get back under cover. They haven't actually fired yet, but they did make an alert over the
video. Next is Margot. Margot is going to shoot with her pistol. Why not?
Margot rolls an eight, which is pretty darn good. Let's see if she can do any damage.
She does four points. That's one point to this guy. That's the same guy who's speaking on the radio.
And finally, we have, I believe it's Taj. It's your turn.
So I think I'm going to take a play from our pilot and I'm going to
unfurl my ballistic shield and put that up. I'm going to try to take a shot. I don't have a
combat still, but I do have a pistol. So I'm going to try to take a shot at Old Boy that's right
in front of me. Okay, go for it. I rolled the 12. 12? Okay. I believe that skill, you don't have a
combat skill of any kind. No, I didn't take one at all. Okay, that's fine. That's fine. We have
contingencies for that. Let me look. I knew this better. I could do it off the top of my head.
Strength or decks. Pick strength or decks, which one do you like to roll against?
Let's go strength. Strength. Roll a 20-sided die at a minus two.
Well, I rolled a 15 and I have an 11. So you failed. All right, you miss.
Boom. You are able to get your shield deployed and you're able to fire and miss because the
decking is so messed up, you can't actually get out of the way this round chose to do those other
things instead. That is the end of the round. Wasn't that exciting? Yes. Good answer. Who invited
Murphy? Yeah, right. Okay, I suppose we re-rolled. I am testing, but I already dislike the
initiative system that I came up with. So let's re-roll for initiative. That's your decks plus a
20-sided die rolls. That's what it was. Yeah. So for Margot, 14 plus her decks, which I already
didn't have. This is too slow. Next time I'm printing all of this up. I apologize, guys.
decks is 10. So it's a 24, guys. 26. 26. Nice. 21. 30. 30. Damn. My man.
You're man. Yeah, you're man. Everyone's man. Okay. You guys beat them handily. So it will be
wild first as just like last time. It will be in second, just like last time. This time it will be
cargo and then the bad guy. All right, I'm going to take my nice twin pistols and still take
try and take another shot, bear shots at him. Okay, go for it. Same guy, same target, because the other
guy is within range and within sight. Yeah, first come first serve. Okay, go for it. So my combat
bladed is a 13. So I would need an 11 to hit that. You would need an 11 to hit. I miss both.
I miss both times. Both times. The guy is trying to get some cover that also gives him a bonus.
On his armor as well. The other guy in the same deal. But those of you in the doorway who are not
displayed out on the open deck, you guys have that same bonus on your side too. So
all right, so brin. Jump to. I'm going to do what I should have done last time. I'm going to see
if I can use my comlink to jam the radio signal. Go for it. Go for it. That will be a computer's
role. Since you have isolated the signal, there will not be any minuses on this. You've done
all that work already. You're trying to do it all in one go. That would be difficult, but this is
not well, any more difficult. So shooters straight up role. Seven. I rolled a seven, but I was 17.
You did it. No problem. You have effectively set up a scramble on this frequency. They would be
able to switch to another frequency. But this one is dead now within range, and that will be
certainly encompassed this entire ship. There is no communication on that frequency. Whether or
not they have an alternate frequency, you don't know. But this frequency, you've set up a lot of
white noise and scramble and crap like that. And they're not talking to each other. You
set that up and you see the guy who is close enough. You see him go, ah, you see him grab it
his ears as if it hurt his ears. And immediate response in other words. So you believe you did that.
So no more talking. All right. Margot is next shooting. Oh, she rolls a three with her pistol.
That's a hit. Five plus two is seven. Hey, minus the three from this guy's chest plate.
He's not doing too good this guy, but he is still alive. Nice armor.
All right. And now it is posh. I'm going to try to roll myself or like get up and struggle my
way back in with my shield into the door and hide behind Malachi. Is there because he got the
big guns. Is there a way to try to use my calm to like use our codes to lock the hatches coming
in from like that hallway where 11 and 9 and 8 and 10 are to where nobody can get into this
front section. You don't know if any way that you could do that remotely. I'm just going to chill
here and be scared. If there was an active network on this computer or on this ship,
like if the ship had an active network, that might be a very different conversation,
but you don't know of any way to do anything like that remotely at this point. Nothing seems to be
talking to each other. Except for that one calm unit that identified earlier, but that is clearly
a calm unit, a calm device like you guys carry some of you guys carry. All right. So you can't do that.
What would you like to do? I could try to take a shot, but I'm afraid I'm going to shoot one of
my friends at the back of the head, but why not? Let's do it. There's no particular reason why
you would shoot them at the back of the head, but it is possible to miss, but I don't have
fumble rules or any of that in place. I'm not going to worry about it today. You may take a shot
at the same guy or the further guy. No, I'm going to go with the guy that's already pretty messed up.
I rolled a 13 13 and your skill level is zero skill is zero, but you're you're rolling against
what was it decks, I think you said? Strength, which is 11 11 and you rolled a 13 was it? Yes, miss.
It's all it's just a miss. Guys got good cover. What can I say? That is the end of the round
for Linda you guys. Now the bad guys, the close guy he's going to shoot. He rolls two.
So everybody's in that doorway, so we're just going to pick somebody.
Dorf, there's four of you, four sided dice sounds like a nice thing to roll.
Two, that's Brynn. Brynn, how you doing? I hope you paid good money for that shield. Let's see.
Me too. Okay. This guy is using a rifle, so that's 1d8 plus 2.
So 8 plus 2 is 10 minus your armor. So I have a PR2 SR20. Okay, PR of 2, you take instead of 10,
you take 8 points of damage. How? Yeah, that was a severe hit. I'm assuming you stuck your head out
from behind your shield at the wrong time. That's what you got. Stick in your head out at the
wrong time. That's not right. Don't look at me. Look at him. I'm not doing it. This guy is doing it.
Remember, that comes off your stamina first, not your hit points. So that guy took his shot.
The other guy is taking a shot. That's a seven. That will also hit somebody.
Getting. Oh, Brynn. They love you. They love you. I'm popular. Yeah. You're popular.
Seven plus two is nine. Okay. Minus your PR is a PR. Yeah, minus the PR too. So that is a seven total.
And that will go off your stamina and then off your hit points. You've taken some serious hits.
You still up? No, I'm okay. So when do we go unconscious? Okay, you go unconscious. Anytime you get
at to zero or below anything below, ignore that. You're at zero. For hit points or stamina are both
hit points only. So you run through all your stamina, then you start coming off of your hit points.
When you're at zero hit points, then then you're unconscious. I'm hurting, but conscious.
Burning, but conscious and just a suggestion, a tactical retreat might not be a bad thing. Okay. Yeah.
Just saying, just saying, you're the first one that snapped open the shield. You seem like a great target
in Europe. And this thing takes a lot of damage for you. But, you know, I mean, in that one round,
that shield absorbed four points of damage. So that could have been even worse for you. And the rifles
are pretty serious. So some damage there, but you are still up in Adam. And that is the end of that
round. How about that guys? Okay. Initiative again. So that is your Dex plus 1d20.
Argo rolls. Did I say her Dex was 10? She's got a total of 16. 22. 19. 13. I'm apparently the
style is no longer hot. Okay. And the bad guys. All right. So the way this is going to fall down,
bring your first and we have the bad guys. Then we have
ash and margo then wild. And at the beginning of this round, you see two guys come around the corner
way down on the other side on the port side in front of room 16. You see two guys come around
there, but that hallway there is all torn up. They are like, you see them with their hands,
you know, in the air trying to keep their balance as they're trying to move there moving slowly.
They both have rifles, but they are confused. And frankly, they'd be easy targets out in the
middle of a hallway like that. And they're screaming, what's up? What's up? What's up? These other
guys. There's people. There's people. And this first guy is still screaming on the radio as if
somebody can hear him. And that is where we're starting. Bren, you may do something if you wish.
Tactical retreat. Tactical retreat. No problem. You make it back. No problem at all. You can move and
do something else at the same time. There's a possibility if you wish. I think we are outgunned here.
I concur. So I think we should head back into our ship. So Bren is moving back. Next up is a thug.
That's the close guy. Misses with his rifle. Yeah, he missed with this rifle. The other guy fires.
The other guy hits of the three people that are still in the doorway. One, so that is going to be
Tosh, you. Oh God, no. Yes, you, you. Okay, now then that will be
total of five points minus any armor. I have my ballistic shield. Okay, which is the pier,
twenty two. Yep. And a flat vest, which is a PR two. Okay, so you only actually take one point
of damage. You're welcome. I drained his pack for you. They were disappointed when you left.
It was like, I only got these guys. Okay, so that was the first thug. Second thug, he also hits.
Okay. And we'll be first off. See who he's hitting. Sorry about that.
Margot. Margot. Margot. Sorry. You were the juiciest target next. So that also was you.
Oh, this is a serious one. Total of 10 minus whatever for your armor. On hot for the bad guys.
So it was 10 total 10 total minus whatever your armor will do. And I believe that was a total
four between the shield and your back fest. So you're actually only taking six points.
Again, it comes off your stamina first. Then you go to hit points.
Got it. Got it. Okay. Next up, as you may respond to their, their welcome that they offered you.
Nice warm welcome. This is this is the part where we're way screaming.
Like a small child. Run away. Run away. You saw the purple bunny and you're gone.
I flail my arms for good measure. You are able to retreat. Okay. Essentially, you turn
to move and they shot you when you were moving. We'll justify it that way. Okay. Margot is not
leaving just yet. She's going to shoot what else is an NPC for 11. We'll hit.
That's that first guy. She's using her pistol. And she hits this guy.
But his armor takes it. It takes the whole shot.
He's got one point left, but he won't go down while I am also going to beat a tactical retreat
muttering under my breath. I knew I should have brought the grenades.
Okay. That is the end of that round. Margot was still in the doorway, but we'll see what she's
going to do next. And since you, the rest of you are effectively out of that combat for the moment.
You can do whatever you want for the moment. You can do whatever you want to do in there.
We'll handle that separately. It'll be happening simultaneously with whatever is happening
with Margot. Okay. But you are effectively, in other words, I don't have to roll initiative for
you only for her is what I'm basically trying to say. Is she sticking in the doorway or standing
in the doorway. Yeah, standing in the doorway. Effectively, she's, she's, you know, I got the hard
suit. I'm immune. I'm invulnerable. So that's kind of the attitude you're getting out of this
one. And she's like, yeah, yeah, you want some bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. So how fast
one of the doors close? Close the doors ago. She, if you shut the door on her, it will, these
things are supposed to stop automatically if there's an obstruction. But the fast enough that if,
you know, fast is it slow enough that she could get out of the way and come and get step in.
Yes, she could. And if you're going to do that at the same time, then I would like an initiative
because I'm going to do that and tell her to get in here. Okay. So I'm rolling initiative now.
If I can roll it in my box here. 26. 26 just beats her. Just beats her and it will handily beat
the bad guys. Sorry, 25, 25, 25 is her as well, 25. Let's roll this thing. Maybe basically she's
going to get her shot in while you're doing this. And you know, we'll see what happens, right?
Okay. So she's like bang, bang, bang, bang. So and she misses because you close the door on her,
she misses with a natural 20. So that's no good. And the door closes in front of her before the
other guys can do anything. You hear bang, bang, bang, bang on the outside, but it will not penetrate
whatever weapons or should say whatever bullets are using, they're not going to penetrate this door.
You have closed the door. You have not locked it. Do not think this door can lock.
We can cycle it though. Yes, you can in which case then it will.
I will do so. Do you wish to do this? Yes. Okay. You hear a couple thumps and then that trails
off as the air goes away. And no one tears the door down, no anything. The airlock does cycle.
We're able to open the exterior door, assuming you want to do that. Yes.
Everything is as you left it, that little makeshift thing with duct tape is looking good.
What's wrong with that? It was a great job. That was that was one of the best jobs you've ever seen.
Still there. Man, damn fine work if I do say so myself.
Damn fine work. Who doesn't love a good piece of duct tape?
Better duct tape than shooting. So yeah.
Next time the player characters take a day or two to kick back, relax and formulate new plans. See
you then.
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