First Session

[Doug Taylor]

Our first session went extremely well (I thought), and I believe most of the players greatly enjoyed it. The player running the Captain was a bit disappointed, I think, as he ended up staying with the ship for a number of scenes (an away mission while the ship was in jeopardy from a subspace rift).

The game system worked fabulously, thanks much to my experience with CODA (from Lord of the Rings), as well as a great deal of help from many here.

Some things that I noticed might be problematic:

- As mentioned above, the Captain was somewhat hamstrung in his ability to have something to do. During space combat the ship’s Doctor was likewise not really needed (though I gave the player something to do during that time). I’m considering getting secondary PCs for those two players, so that they’ll have more to do during times when their characters aren’t involved.

- My character tested out the Double Fire Key Trait. To say he was crazy good in combat would be an understatement. One round he easily dropped three Romulans, hitting each of them twice (just in case they shrugged off the first stunning phaser fire). I can see this being abused, and sure wouldn’t want an NPC doing this back at a PC. Might have to tone this ability down, as I don’t recall a lot of this happening on any of the TV series.

- After a few rounds of space combat, our Operations Officer hacked into the enemy vessel and modulated their shields, effectively making it as if they had no shields (and thus phaser fire hit directly on the system it was targeting). This is another thing that I can see would be abusive, if done every battle (and could be frustrating if the enemy does it to the PCs).

As always, I welcome your input and suggestions. I liked the way things flowed, and the adventure was a lot of fun. I think I might end up tweaking a few things, though, to prevent future abuse.

[Calastir]

The Captain is usually the focus of the action. Have the players ask his permission on how to handle their mission, or regularly giving updates on their progress. Or have him constantly be distracted by an NPC passenger who's perhaps romantically interested, giving him something else to deal with.

Same goes for the doctor. Not all their actions have to relate to their jobs.

If hacking takes a lot of time, it becomes useless while under fire. Let their power go down or their panel explode while they're at it, if you feel they're abusing the rules. (That'll give the doctor something to do as well)

Narrators should reward ingenuity, but the fun should be for players and narrators alike.

[Doug Taylor]

These are good ideas. I'm hopeful that this Captain (who has a love of archaeology) will often go on away missions, and the Doctor is one of the only members of the party that's experienced in the sciences, so should often be a member as well.

Great ideas, though. I do appreciate them, and will consider working them into what I'm doing.

[Calastir]

Any more session updates? I quite enjoy reading them.

[Doug Taylor]

Any more session updates? I quite enjoy reading them.

We play our second session tonight; I'll be running Decipher's Perdition's Flames, written by Doug Burke and Don Mappin.

I'll keep you all posted on how it goes!

[Calastir]

That's interesting; I also used 'Perdition's Flames' for my first session as a narrator 5 years ago, and talked about it in this topic.

[Fugazi Grrl]

That's interesting; I also used 'Perdition's Flames' for my first session as a narrator 5 years ago, and talked about it in this topic.

I could post several play-session reports, since we've been playing CODA for close to two months now, pretty regularly.

We had a hard start initially, and some of my players weren't very pleased with the game. But, my friend Tam helped me familiarize myself with the system and it's now become my favorite of the Trek games.

CODA can actually play very cinematic, and that's what we like.

[Nuclear Fridge]

These are good ideas. I'm hopeful that this Captain (who has a love of archaeology) will often go on away missions, and the Doctor is one of the only members of the party that's experienced in the sciences, so should often be a member as well.

Great ideas, though. I do appreciate them, and will consider working them into what I'm doing.

A trip down to Altair IV, to check on the science party from the civilian ship Bellerophon perhaps?