The Black Campbell

It’s been two weeks since the last AAR for the Galactica game. This is partly due to the addition of two new players, so there was a lot of intro work. One of the new characters is a JAG lawyer who has been brought in to monitor the actions of the characters and their investigations into Cylon infiltration of the Colonies. They’re research has led them to suspect toaster involvement in several mega-lobby firms and non-profits…all highly politically connected. This positioning has the characters in a difficult place, where they cannot push too hard for fear of riling up politicians tightly connected to these group’s money stream. The lawyer is there to slow the investigation, as much as keep them legally correct.

The second new character is a Colonial Marine Corps sergeant who has been assigned to protect Commander Pindarus (the lead in the series). He’s a young, confident but not as smart as he thinks he is son of a fisherman from Picon, who is somewhat prejudiced toward the privileged and wealthy.

The new characters needed some intro time and the character crosstalk has increased dramatically, which is slowing the plot somewhat. This is one downside to larger groups — add a player and I find the crosstalk doubles. If you have a player who is more of a time hog than others, that also slows matters.

The plot elements the last two weeks: Things are still moving at a quick pace. The characters had rounded up a group of suspects that were tied to their main target, a lobbyist for the Lucan Foundation, an educational non-profit that does a lot of policy work. They are the main force behind trying to downsize the defense budget in favor of social programs. these people had been smuggled past the customs at Caprica City Spaceport**, and one of them was later involved in an attack on Pindarus.

Their efforts are mostly a failure over the last two episodes. They make a move to arrest the lobbyist, but when they make their move to raid the condo of the man, all electronic devices, the power goes out for a two block radius of the building. Their quarry is gone, and all of his computers and storage media are trashed due to some kind of EMP bomb about the size of an 48 ounce drink cup — it’s technology far advanced of Clonial EMP devices. They find a strange mechanical fly, as well, and think it might have been a surveillance device that saw the breach team’s approach and popped the bomb.

The mission is jeopardized by the botched raid because the condominium was in the swanky Orpheus Park neighborhood — home to a lot of business, entertainment, and political figures. (Think the Upper West Side of Manhattan…) A lot of important people were inconvenienced and are blaming the Colonial Security Service. To make matters worse, the twelve other suspects they have all die in custody — the back of their heads popping from the “kill swtich” in their cybernetics. they track down the captain that brought them in, but he’s clean of cybernetics and cooperates reluctantly, but all his information is useless — save for one piece that links the lobbyist’s activities to the elusive Count Azarius Lucan — the man who founded the Lucan Foundation that the suspect worked for, but also the Prometheus Foundation, a policy think tank that is similar in size and scope to the Tides Foundation in the real world. Lucan has been a recluse since he suffered a near-fatal accident while orbital skydiving. He lives on a private island on Virgon, and it appears the suspect has been visiting the place off the books (something the foundation VP on Caprica says he would not have done.)

It’s obvious the Cylons know they are onto them and are trimming the loose ends. There’s other elements that have been in play, as well, family and friends and other distractions to keep the players off balance.

(**Worldbuilding element: the Colonies are supposed to have a freedom of movement between the Twelve Worlds, but  because of differing tax rates on various planets and some differences in product legality, travelers are supposed to go through customs checks. It’s a misdemeanor on most worlds to dodge customs.)