Just finished up the Last Flight of the Red Sword and wow! I got to catch my breath.
It was a very interesting session. I had planned for this to be done in two sessions because I had two new players and two who had played before. None of them had ever done sci-fi and so they spent a good chunk of time familiarizing themselves with the bio forms and classes. But despite that they ended up completely the adventure in one go.
The big problem of the night was that they completed the adventure without ever knowing WHAT their mission was. One of my players feedback was the combination of the Gargantua and the constant Solar flares made them feel like their very survival was on the line and that the ship was going to fall apart any minute. This pushed them to rush off the ship before they could investigate the Science Bay and learn all the specific details about the crew, their plan, and the Darkstar. They felt like they ultimately missed out on the WHY of the adventure even though they completed it as intended.
They did finish on a high note by narrowly making it off the ship by engaging the emergency air lock and getting sucked into space and being saved by their Warp Shell. (They attempted to latch on to the ship with a grappling hook but failed miserably. I had the Warp Shell transmit a disappointed emoji to each of their communication units before returning to pick them up).
All in all, I’m walking away with a sense of satisfaction at my first real foray into the Warp Shell universe.
I enjoyed using the terrain and Ultimate Dungeon Terrain that I’ve been building (I will have pictures soon of my completed suitcase).
On other notes, I ran Gargantua using the Action Oriented Monster method, as described on another post, and I felt that it offered me flavor and direction as the GM, but… one of my players decided to be a gunner with a burst fire unit and blew through Gargantua in two rounds. Before that happened though, Gargantua did come across as a threat and his actions did make for a more dynamic fight instead of just being a slug fest. I think it gave me a framework to chew on and a structure to follow as my players run around in all the ensuing chaos. I never know what my players are going to do, but I enjoyed knowing that my monsters had a plan.
I also really enjoyed using @Ezzerharden’s Game Master Worksheets with a few of my own custom pages added on. They really helped me work through the whole session and for once I didn’t feel like I was flying by the seat of my pants or having to refer back to my computer every other turn.
If you haven’t done Last Flight of the Red Sword, I highly recommend you do. It taught me a lot about ICRPG and it was a solidly fun adventure.