The Gaming Den

Vote registered, investigating the small grey planet.

261
https://imgur.com/a/Fh9CsoP
The planet appears to have no life on it, but scanners detect some sort of activity, perhaps the regular workings of a machine. You decide to investigate and send out a party in a recon plane to see what is happening. They pilot the plane to the area of the signal and land on the planet. It is rocky and barren but not far from where they have landed they find a scout ship of a type they have never come across before, crashed into the surface. Will you tell them to investigate it further (turn to 176) or return to your ship (turn to 66)?

Please make your votes before 6:00 PM PST to guarantee that they will be counted.

Investigate further: I'd send Donald, Gizmoduck and Launchpad.

Vote acknowledged, investigating the ship further.

176
They can find no signs of the pilot. Perhaps he has died or was killed in the crash. An automatic signal, probably a type of Mayday call, is being transmitted by the ship’s radio. There being nothing else to see on the planet, your crew return to the recon plane and fly back to the ship. Turn to 66.

66
Landing the recon plane, the party make their way to the briefing room to report to you. As they relate their findings, you are interrupted suddenly with an urgent message: ‘Captain! We have lost three of our engineering personnel who were involved with docking the recon plane. They are all dead!’ What will be your first command?

Put the landing party into quarantine in the Medical Section Turn to 306
Seal off the docking bay Turn to 18
Jettison the recon plane Turn to 201

Please make your votes before 8:00 PM PST to guarantee that they will be counted.

Since nobody voted, my decision is to seal off the docking bay.

This is what we eventually would have done in this scenario, no matter what we chose.

18
Quickly, the crew seal off the affected area so as to prevent the spread of this unknown killer. No more deaths are reported. Turn to 337.

337
Using an EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) suit, your Medical Officer examines the body of one of the victims. She finds that the man has been poisoned. The planet below must have some sort of poisonous gas in its atmosphere and this has now been carried back to the ship. Will you:

Get the MO to search for an antidote and treat the crew? Turn to 223
Evacuate the air from all the affected sections? Turn to 284

Please make your votes before 9:00 AM PST to guarantee that they will be counted.

Antidote, I guess. I would try evacuating in real life, but that feels too easy.

Heroes don't just toss their crew out the airlock. Try to make an antidote.

Yeah, try antidote.

Yeah beam with Gizmoduck and Dewey

Votes registered, getting MO Quack to search for an antidote and treat the crew.

223
Roll two dice for your Medical Officer. If the roll is equal to or lower than her SKILL score, turn to 129. If the roll exceeds her SKILL, turn to 46.

Rolling the dice yields a 4, which is lower than 8.

Important note: According to publicly available errata for this book, the outcomes for the dice-roll for the Medical Officer were swapped so that the successful outcome occurs by rolling *higher* than her SKILL score. Because that does not make sense, we will instead be turning to paragraph 46 in order to get the successful outcome.

46
Your Medical Officer comes up with a possible antidote and injects herself. She goes down to the docking bay without an EVA suit and waits. An hour later, she still has shown no signs of illness. The antidote has worked! All crew report to the Medical Section for treatment. Turn to 11.

11
https://imgur.com/a/H9hBe19
Back on the bridge, you set your course. Ahead of you are two planets. You may head for either a large red planet (turn to 329), a blue planet (turn to 2) or a small, fast-moving spot which shows signs of life (turn to 92).

Please make your votes before 6:00 PM PST to guarantee that they will be counted.

Like a cat, I am drawn to small fast moving spots

Vote recognized, heading to the small, fast-moving spot which shows signs of life.

92
You head out into space, with scanners probing ahead of you. A small fast-moving dot comes within range. As you approach it, you identify it as another ship. You send out an all-frequency radio message and soon an alien face appears on your screen. The face is brown, scaly and somewhat reptilian and introduces itself as Commander M’k Mal of the Imperial Ganzig Confederation. Have you come across the Imperial Ganzig Confederation before? If so, turn to 335. If not, turn to 5.

We have come across the Imperial Ganzig Confederation before.

335
You relate your exchange with Commander M’k Tel. The alien is suspicious and orders that you accompany him to the nearest starbase. If you will follow him as he orders, turn to 15. If you refuse, you will have to attack his ship (remember any penalties enforced by your last encounter).

Alien ship WEAPONS STRENGTH 8 SHIELDS 12

For ship-to-ship combat rules, turn to 341 but remember this reference so that you can return afterwards. If you defeat the Ganzigites, turn to 185.

Please make your votes before 6:00 PM PST to guarantee that they will be counted.

Go with. I fear instant death, but smell a recurring character.

Going with sounds reasonable.

Votes registered, following the commander as he orders.

15
https://imgur.com/a/2n5YLV1
You follow the Ganzigites for several hours until a small round object is picked up by your scanners. Ahead of you is a large, wheel-shaped structure, rotating slowly. The Ganzigites announce their arrival. Monitoring their conversation, you learn that this is the spaceport Laur-Jamil. M’k Mal once again contacts you and gives you docking instructions.

You dock the ship and wait while he checks your story. Some time later you see the Ganzigite ship leave dock. Presumably you have either been cleared, forgotten about or ignored. You decide to leave the ship and investigate the spaceport. Turn to 157.

157
https://imgur.com/a/ZLHjIKZ
Inside the spaceport you follow the corridor until you are approached by a hovering device of some kind. It announces itself as a Service Robot and asks if it may be of assistance. You may ask it:

To take you to someone of authority Turn to 74
Whether there are recreation facilities here Turn to 308
How you might go about giving the ship a service overhaul Turn to 106

Please make your votes before 6:00 PM PST to guarantee that they will be counted.

Authority.

Vote acknowledged, asking the service robot to take us to someone of authority.

74
The Service Robot leads you to a waiting room. After several minutes you are shown into a plush office with polished metal walls. Behind a desk standing before a large window looking out into space sits a large creature. It has a large head and torso and is shaped like an old-fashioned egg-timer.

The alien introduced himself as D’Ouse-E and asks how he may help you. He is apparently the Controller of this spaceport. You explain your position and ask whether he may be able to help you find your way back to your own universe. He asks you to wait while he contacts his Mapping Section. Sitting bolt upright, in a state of meditation, he appears to be contacting someone by telepathy. You wait patiently.

Suddenly he snaps out of his trance. ‘I cannot guarantee that this information will help you,’ he says, ‘but my mapping officer has done some studies on gateways between universes. It seems likely that two universes will touch in the near future – Stardate 77 to be precise – although there is no way of telling whether this is likely to be your own universe. You will be able to transfer only through a black hole, but he cannot be certain which one.’ You thank him for his information and return to the ship. Turn to 242.

242
https://imgur.com/a/fGvldJB
Starting up the ship’s engines, you leave the spaceport and head off into deep space. Turn to 324.

324
https://imgur.com/a/WnFIHeD
Your crew are becoming anxious about their fate. Will they be spending the rest of their lives searching space for a dimension gate which my never appear? You are called on to make a statement to reassure them. Have you learned the time and space coordinates of the black hole which will, hopefully, take you back to your own universe? If you believe you have, turn to 216. If you have not yet found them, turn to 197.

Well, we have one location and one time in our notes, which hopefully could be the black hole we are looking for.

216
You call all your section heads to the briefing room and announce that you believe you have the space and time coordinates for a likely black hole. If your velocity and timing are right, you ought to be able to pass through this black hole, which may be the Seltsian Void, and emerge in Earth’s universe. You return to the bridge and prepare for this journey, setting off towards your black hole. Subtract its time coordinates from its location coordinates and turn to the number that this gives.

Sector 288 - Stardate 77 = Paragraph 211

211
You set course and arrive at the black hole, dropping out of warp speed some distance from it. Carefully planning your angle of entry and velocity, you head into the dark void. You feel the ship being taken by the immense gravitational force and order all crew to strap themselves in. Suddenly the ship lurches forwards and begins to speed up. The G-force is so strong that you, along with the rest of the crew, pass out. Turn to 339.

339
You will never know whether or not this was the correct black hole. Perhaps it was your angle of entry, or maybe it was your speed, or even the information you have. Whatever the error, the Traveller never emerges from the void. Your mission has been unsuccessful.

Bonus death entry:
In Donald’s last moments when he realizes his failure, his thoughts were: "So quickly?! Why couldn’t I have some more time to figure out the correct coordinates!? I did the best I could, but I failed everyone, and now we will die. Let us hope that the next life is better than this trash, as this situation has just been a serious raw deal." His world fades to an eternal black.

Well, the information we had was not correct, and the entire crew is toast because of it. I did say this journey was one of the shorter ones. If it makes anyone feel better, I will say that in my first time reading this book, I was also overwhelmed at the sudden and massive pile of information that the book decided to pile for the ending.

So now it is time for me to get started on the next book I have in mind, and I will start a new thread for it very soon. Thank you all for playing, and I hope to see you again in the next book that I will run!

Adventure Sheet:

CREW:

CAPTAIN: Donald
SKILL: 12/11
STAMINA: 18/18

SCIENCE OFFICER: Gizmoduck
SKILL*: 9/9
STAMINA: 22/22

MEDICAL OFFICER: Quack
SKILL*: 8/8
STAMINA: 21/21

ENGINEERING OFFICER: Launchpad
SKILL*: 8/8
STAMINA: 21/21

SECURITY OFFICER: Huey
SKILL: 7/7
STAMINA: 18/18

SECURITY GUARD 1: Dewey
SKILL: 9/9
STAMINA: 19/19

SECURITY GUARD 2: Louie
SKILL: 7/7
STAMINA: 21/21

SHIP:

WEAPONS STRENGTH: 9/9
SHIELDS: 14/16

NOTES:
Possess alien helmet (+1 SKILL, worn by Donald)
Possible black hole locations: Sector 288
Possible black hole times: Stardate 77
Deduct 2 from rolls against SKILL**

LUCK: 12

*Deduct 3 points from SKILL in combat

Well, somewhat anticlimactic, but interesting that we didn't just get spoon fed the astronomical coincidence we needed.

I wonder if doubting our information would have given us more time or if the crew just loses hope and it's game over anyway?

Where did we pick up sector 288?

Oh, way back on hallucination planet. I guess the winning path requires checking another planet to verify the black hole

Zaranthan wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 13, 2022 4:01 pm

Well, somewhat anticlimactic, but interesting that we didn't just get spoon fed the astronomical coincidence we needed.

I wonder if doubting our information would have given us more time or if the crew just loses hope and it's game over anyway?

Doubting our information also would have led us to a Game Over. Due to the resulting low morale, the crew suffers two suicides, and the Medical Section becomes overloaded with crew suffering from nervous disorders. The Navigation Officer picks up a black hole, which is also wrong and takes us to paragraph 339.

pragma wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 13, 2022 7:23 pm

Oh, way back on hallucination planet. I guess the winning path requires checking another planet to verify the black hole

According to a brief analysis of the book that I just conducted, the correct planet with the location we needed was on the blue planet on paragraph 2. Going after the small, fast-moving spot instead made our game unwinnable.