In reply to Casey Khatri (msg # 137):

In my desperate search for SciFi games I recently joined a Rogue Trader game... and it just does not catch, know what I mean? The WH40K setting is just not my thing. It is too weird. All Traveller games end pretty fast in RPoL so I don't even bother anymore to take a look. W.O.I.N. looks interesting. Naturally Star Wars is huge, but imo difficult to play in. Again, few games run long. And I never looked into Star Trek.
The Expanse is truly a good setting.
When I read the first book I was not hooked. It read too... don't know... limited in scope I guess. I'm more into Peter F. Hamilton or Alastair Reynolds. But the second book did it for me. 3rd was good, too. I was uncertain about the 4th but found I liked it, too.
Not sure where they are heading as the Ring Gates appeared (I am currently reading Nemesis Games, taking an incredibly long time, though, RL is not kind these days) and obviously 4th Season has themes in it which seem to come from later books.
Anyway, like I already said: I would love to play in the setting. I considered GMing in it several times but I don't find the time.

As I often do with series of books I come to late I read books 1-4 back to back, and in a short enough time period that I don't really know where one ends and the next begins, but as far as I can recall the overall story matches up fairly well with seasons 1-4.  Books 5 and 6 I read as they came out so I have a bit more discrete memory of each one.

I don't think season 4 is blurring the line into later books so much as it is building out the world a little bit in a visual way that books simply can't do, and is thus a little bit different.

Finished 4th season... I hate cliff hangers.
Once again, well done indeed

I know we are still all hanging and such so it isn't really a big issue for now.

The earliest I'd be able to get things starting to roll would be the end of February. Would that work for those of you still here?

Also, GM, if you'd like to play instead you are welcome to.

End of Feb works fine for me. It's not like I play in many games anyway... or GM for that matter. Limit of 5 is what works for me for quite a few years now ^^.

The one multi-year game I was in just ended.  I'm just running my Hero System game.

Not in a hurry to add any more; I've been trying to code more at home and enjoying that time.

Will see what my schedule allows come February

I should be good come February.  I have a festival to prep for, but it's not until March.

End of Feb. would work for me as well

We have four active players not including myself or the GM, five with the GM. I've decided I am good to run a game so GM, if you would please.

It will still be closer to the end of February but I'll be working on it in the mean time.

I do have two questions for those who are already here. What size crew of PCs are you comfortable with?

Should we open this up to more players?

Cool, I think I have the availability for this.

Now....let's see if I can figure out how to transfer ownership.

Think I got it.  Updated you to a GM and then set you as owner.  Make sure it all looks good, then you can drop me back to a player.

Looks good. Moved a few things around.

I have the Conn.

Queries above stand so please let me know.

Thanks again DBCowboy aka GM!

I think 4-5 players/characters is well suited for an Expanse game and should suffice.
Not opposed to more, though.

Are we thinking new characters, new story?  Or more of a rebuild with the full rules for the existing characters?

I'm game for either.

I have not fully decided yet though I am willing to let people keep their original characters if they so desire.

I can go either way, but I would like to test the character advancement system a bit too, so if we could start with something other than the lowest level characters that would probably be better.

As long as players are active, they will get the chance even at starting levels.

I am in the process of finishing a SR game on here that has been running over eight years. Though we are still a few months out from the actual ending.

So, since I believe I am the only one who did not actually take part in this game I am obviously also the one without a PreGen (or any character really)

Not quite sure which PreGens have been picked already with intention to keep playing them.
These indicate future active players. Plus previous GM


Plus Doris Rosenberg who is not a PreGen

We also have two people who have never posted or not posted in over a year that we can probably either drop entirely, or just ignore.

In any case we need a character creation paradigm, and probably some recruiting of new players, I tend to think games that start at least a step or two up from the minimum level offer a better opportunity to play characters as interesting heroes without seeming like the silly vigilante in a home made costume.

5 players not enough for starters?
I have no issues with starting chars.
This is the first AGE game I will play, so...
If I were to gerate a char I need more info about building, e.g. point-buy, rolls or choice.

The default in the book is to roll everything, but that also assumes you are playing a game in person and can keep rerolling until you find a fun combination.  For forum games point buy and choice are almost always better because we just don't want to add to the complexity of the already significant setup time.

I find 5 players is enough to play, but 8 is better and when 2 disappear 3 isn't enough to keep going.

Well, I just rolled Abilities for fun... point-buy would be a lot better for those rotten rolls... but all PreGens are even better than point-buy.
I have never (no joke) rolled well in any CharGen ^^ which is why I typically do prefer buying ;)

Would be ideal to drop those players if only so that they don't continue to receive notices for a game they abandoned.

I agree, point buy would work best if only to ensure folks can actually have a character that works for their chosen profession.  Fortunately the book offers that option for abilities:



For everything else, a lot can probably be safely picked to make sure you're filling the niche in the group you'd like.   Background is kind of tricky, it kind of leads into making sure you can get the profession you want but also has a big impact on income at the end.  Pretty sure we all shouldn't be Affluent (or higher depending on background choices)

I only saw yesterday that you can choose any profession of a lower Social Class, so that should do the trick of at least covering that.
Origin can be chosen anyway, so we ought to be good ?

Humble Suggestion:
One can roll for abilities but then choose to point-buy instead if it's too bad (like in my case - I think... no negatives after all, it could be even worse)...

Either way, I think we ought to discuss game concept... or rather GM tell us, lol... before we can really decide on character concepts?
What kind of game do you have in mind?