Ganesha Games is preparing a new light storytelling d6 RPG. The game is in the Beta Testing phase, and I am lucky to be one of playtesters, especially having in mind that this is extremely solo friendly RPG.
For my first play through, I decided to continue my Star Wares campaign following adventures of young Sith Darth Agnan and his friends, stormtroopers Athos, Portos and Aramis.
Previous adventures of the group (played using different rule sets) can be found here and here.
Here are the stats for our heroes, using High Stakes character creation mechanics:
Back at his corvette "The Guillotine", Darth Agnan wants to interrogate Ewok prisoner.
Task difficulty 4.
Darth Agnan uses Aura 4 + 1 from Trusted by common folk trait. He also decides to rise the stakes - if he fails Ewok will die during interrogation process, and Sith will loose face, by gaining epithet of Ewok killer + 1 for the total of 6 dice to be rolled.
After some dice exploding, I ended with 3 successes and 3 complications. So....
Ewok committed suicide by releasing Ogam gas from device hidden on his body (presence of gass is complication 1). I am using the fact that I rolled a 6 (which was later exploded) to add a story telling element - Darth Agnan was ready for this, so he upgraded his Sith suit with Ogam gas-mask. He is unaffected by gas in the room. But (complication 2) after detecting Ogam gas in the room, ship automatically locked the prison room away from the rest of the corvette, leaving Darth Agnan locked inside. Furthermore (complication 3) Imperial headquarters are automatically informed about presence of the Ogam gas on "The Guillotine", and they are sending a cruiser to destroy the corvette in order to avoid further ecological catastrophes.
Aramis tries to reconnect ships ventilation system in order to transfer Ogam gas from prison cell to other, unused room and to refill prison with fresh air.
Task difficulty 4.
Aramis uses Mind 4 + technician trait +1 + he knows the ship +2 tactical dice.
It is success, but with 1 complication - Ogam gas was transferred to the gun turret, and in this way crew lost control of the ship's main weapon.
Portos uses his Body 5 to break the door to the prison cell (difficulty 2). Success with a complication - breaking electricity circuits in the door made ship transfer all its power to life support systems. All lights in the ship turned off, and team has to return to the cockpit in absolute darkness.
Darth Agnan taps his Light saber trait for automatic success of easy task. Guided by the light of his saber, team safely gets to the cockpit....
...only to see the imperial cruiser approaching and taking attack positions.Athos contacts commander of the cruiser, trying to persuade responsible persons that Darth agnan should be given a chance to save his ship.
Aura 3 + knows people 1 + friend with political elite 1 + rising stakes (loss of the ship) 1 vs task difficulty 3 - success with one complication and one Story element - Tweelek female Admiral Baaaang (story element) agrees to give one chance to the team, but if the first success fails, she will destroy the corvette immediately (complication).
Aramis and Darth Agnan take the two seat Tie Fighter. They will try to destroy gun turret without damaging the rest of the ship. Aramis will do the actual shooting while Darth Agnan will do the piloting.
Task difficulty 3.
Body 2 + Strategist trait 1 + Wants to be general relationship 1 + help from the Pilot trait +1 to total of 5.
Aramis made a clear shot, so clear that he managed to separate gun turret from "The Guillotine" without damaging either one of them. But turret filled with Ogam gas was pulled by gravitation of the nearby planet, and soon it was lost among debris orbiting it.....
"The Guillotine" was beamed by cruiser into repair bay. It will take some time and lots of money to repair the ship.
Our heroes are not a step closer to solving the mystery of the Ogam gas. Further more, container with deadly load is lost somewhere in inhabited space, and there is a big danger of falling into wrong hands. And our heroes have no means to go after it....
To be continued.....
Impressions: High Stakes works great as solo RPG. System of Story elements and Complications really drives story onward, player never knows what will happen next.
Once it gets published, this system will be highly recommended for all soloists.
