Blasting out of Vesta: Stars Without Number

Today we fired up our first session of a new Stars Without Number sandbox game. The idea is to play super-fast sessions weekly on a Wednesday afternoon. I was super nervous about it all day and sure it was going to be a failure. First of all, short sessions on a weekday afternoon while normal people are at work? Crazy. Setting up a game by just inviting everyone you can think of then telling them they don't have to show up? Nuts. But we had a great time anyway. Jon, John, and Jobe came by, made up some characters, invited a bit of backstory,and galvanized the team in a single half-hour encounter. Some folks made up two characters because, you know, space is deadly. So Dex is a down-on-his luck space trucker. He's been playing it by the book, but now his flight status has been revoked, the company's repossessing his ship, and his appeal is being ignored. And he doesn't even know why! So he gets his hands on some launch codes and books a "no questions asked" cargo run. He's hired some losers and outcasts to crew for him! He's going to steal his own ship and make some cash to pay his lawyers! But first he has to get out Vesta. Session one saw a gun battle with Confed Trade Authority goons in a backwoods asteroid port. Dex and his engineer Stan got perforated with needler rounds, but fortunately the 16 year old runaway on the crew is also a (technically) unlicensed bio-psionic. In game terms, this means they didn't just die outright. Now the guy who hired them is dead, but they've got the advance on the delivery and the cargo itself. Dex and Stan need desperate medical attention, but that OK, because Chet kidnapped a surgeon before they blasted out of Vesta on their (technically) stolen starship.