Wolfrat has taken to playing an irregular game of the tabletop mecha RPG Lancer. The following report details two sessions on 3/14/21 and 3/21/21.

An indescribable partnership: David Adams, a disgruntled worker with debts to pay; and Craig Boone, an ex-Union operative with a haunted conscience. Together they struck out to D15 Gateway, a station in the Long Rim on the edge of the infamous Scyllan Gap. Crushed by their bills and their pasts, they turned to bounty hunting to stay alive. Their latest gig was a deal for none other than the Smith-Shimano corp. A bounty was posted for a fugitive who had stolen key data from a Smith-Shimano station, and Adams and Boone brought them in.

image

From Cowboy Bebop

In doing so, they made contact with a shadowy broker known only as “Jorge” (pronounced “George”), who deals in data and mixed drinks. His hole-in-the-wall (which apparently has no name) proved to be invaluable to the duo as they set out on their next bounty.

Adams and Boone pick up a hit on a lancer known as “Fry Far-he-Sails” posted by an anonymous group. With nothing else to go on, they head to Jorge’s.

Adams gives the very clever covert sign used for making deals.

“I’ll have a whiskey on the rocks.”

Jorge nods.

Boone slips the barkeep the target’s name, and receives a disc containing info scrubbed from the comm. channels of a local pirate gang, the Bloodkrakes. “Devil Town, for sure. Closing in on the bastard.”

With this lead, the duo have almost everything they need. All that is left is to do a little reconnaissance and get some clever disguises.

image

File photo of Jorge. From Atlus' Catherine.

Boone catches wind that some Bloodkrakes have been seen gearing up near the Boneyard. Meanwhile, Adams paints over his mech in a royal purple, the color of a notorious Baron House mercenary company. His goal: (?).

The stage is set. The air is right. The hunt begins.

A lift brings them to the cold, silent docks of the Boneyard. A few scrappers meet their eyes as they leave the lift, but all refuse to talk. The hunters are searching the scene when a bright flash catches their eyes. Fearing they will lose their mark, they run out to the end of a bridge where a decaying carrier ship is erupting with flashes of gunfire.

image

Spaceship Salvage by Edward Barons, from ArtStation

In they charge, weaving through old reactors and across weathered decks, the stars peeking in through the rotting corpse of the ship. Firefight. Two Bloodkrakes, ready to draw blood to protect their prize. One explodes from a blast by Adams, and the other takes a right hook from Boone before Adams sends it flying into corrosive acid where it, too, explodes.

All they have to do now is bring in their bounty. Far Far-he-Sails hides away in the ship’s navigation deck, begging for life. He makes a counter-offer. “You let me go, and you can have my body–my mech.”

Reluctant but intrigued, the duo debate. Fry knows an uncanny amount about the pair, and implores them to look beyond the lives of fear that they have fallen into. Finally they agree, and watch as Fry ascends into a craft the likes of which they’ve never seen. They think themselves marks when only silence follows, but just as they begin to doubt, the husk of Fry’s mech comes floating back.

image

Goblin design by Tom Parkinson-Morgan (Lancer co-creator)

“Should we hand in the bounty? Or sell this mech on the market?”

They choose the former, after which a cowled man with robotic arms arrives on a sleek craft to collect what is theirs. The mech, and the money, trade hands. Sweating, they pray the mysterious man doesn’t notice the bounty is long gone.

Halfway to the lift, Adams and Boone get a message on their terminals. “Fuck you.” The meaning is clear.

Bounty hunting is not a trade conducive to mercy. What will the duo do with their new gains and, perhaps, more than a few new enemies?

image

More from Cowboy Bebop