"Beating his bat-like wings, Ridley launches himself away from you, hurling himself backward to the forcefield window at the far end of the room! He turns his head back and forth, keeping a careful eye on you and the room." The GM mimicked the head motion as he spoke.
Samantha nodded, thoughtfully. "I'm out of missiles... Is there any cover between me and him?"
"Just the torn section of bulkhead near where you're standing. The alien artworks are all either low-lying or mounted on walls."
"I'll stay where I am, then, and fire another three-shot burst." She selected and rolled three pairs of dice, then leant back and waited for the GM to announce the result.
They were playing in the living room. His living room, technically, since he was the landlord and she was the tenant. The property market being what it was, there was no way she could have afforded to buy her own place. She was saving up for one, and her job paid reasonably well... But even so, her parents hadn't raised a spendthrift, and she did not want to go into debt.
So, she was stuck renting for the time being. Not that she minded much. Her housemates were easy to get along with, and the live-in landlord being a GM was an unexpected bonus.
"That's another... Nine points of damage," he announced. "Ridley doesn't bother firing back. Instead, he turns and breathes flame directly at the forcefield window!"
Samantha's face fell. "Fuck, that opens onto space, doesn't it? Do I know what the rating of the forcefield is?"
"Not without taking the time to scan it." He rolled some dice behind his screen. "However, it's obviously not high enough. It flickers and winks out, causing a great wind as the air rushes out of the-"
"I, um." Sam panicked, "I fire my grapple beam at the bulkhead!"
"Hmmm... You'll still need to make a stability check to stay in the room, but I'll say you get a +6 bonus to the roll."
She rolled a pair of dice.... Which came up a natural twelve. "Oh, thank god."
The GM nodded. "Yes, with your grapple beam you easily manage to avoid getting sucked into space as the room decompresses. Ridley, on the other hand, let himself be carried out with the escaping air. You can see him beating his wings against the void as he makes his escape."
"He escapes again? Seriously?"
"Yes, seriously."
"Can I track him with my suit's sensors?"
"Hmm." The GM rolled two dice and consulted the tables on the inside of his screen. "No, he moved out of range too quickly for your sensors to collect enough data to predict his destination."
"Did you take into account my bonus for using Chozo tech?"
"Unupgraded Chozo tech. You left all your non-basic suit upgrades behind, remember? Plus he rolled a nine, so..."
Sam fell back into her chair melodramatically. "Fuuuuuck."
"If it makes you feel any better, you did manage to get him down below half health before he escaped."
"Which he'll have healed by the next time we meet."
"Assuming he has access to a medbay... Which he probably will, yeah."
Samantha sighed, and flipped to the backstory page of her character sheet. "I've been chasing this guy for how long, now?"
"Uh... Bounty hunters are assumed to perform an average of two major missions per year, and Samus has been on ten major missions, so..."
"I've been after him for five years, and I still haven't worked out how to stop him escaping?"
"Well, to be fair, you have stopped him a couple of times in the past. For a while, anyway. And he hasn't worked out how to stop you from coming after him, either, so you could say you're evenly matched."
Sam sighed. "So the epic struggle between good and evil continues. Again."
"I like to think of it as a fight between a dragon and a knight in armour."
"Heh. That story needs a princess, though."
Without warning, the GM burst out laughing.
"What? What did I say?"
"Oh, just-" He burst into giggles again before managing to calm down. "Remember how I said a new person is moving into Ganhari's old room this week?"
"Yeah?"
"I mentioned that a I GM during the interview, and she asked if she was allowed to join into any of my campaigns. When I asked her what kind of character she wanted to play, she actually said 'a princess.'"
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. Well, she was joking, but still."
"Oh." Suddenly feeling tired, Sam pulled out her phone and checked the clock. "Hey, do you mind if we leave it here for the night? It's already past eleven."
"Time flies. Sure, I'll just make a few notes so we can pick up where we left off. I'll pack up here when I'm done." He began scribbling on one of the pages behind his screen.
Sam stood up, and stretched her arms. "So..." she began, dropping her hands back to her sides, "Is this new girl going to join the game?"
The GM's pen stopped moving, and he looked up from his notes. "I... Only if you're OK with it. After what happened last time, I wasn't really sure..."
"As long as she's not as crazy as Adam turned out to be, right?"
"Yeah. Sorry again for that. I really didn't realize how much he was going to hijack the game."
"Yeah, I know. Don't worry about it. Besides, after seeing Ridley get away again? I think I need all the help I can get."
"I shouldn't have any trouble adding a new player to the campaign at this point. I can just say the federation dispatched an additional bounty hunter to assist with the mission."
"Cool. Do you know what kind of character she's going to play?"
"Not yet. I guess we'll find out when she moves in."
Of course, real life rarely goes to plan. Between needing to work late a few evenings and an unexpected visit from her parents, Samantha didn't actually get to meet her new housemate until the eve of the next session - and it wasn't until they actually sat down to play that she learned anything about the new girl's character:
Wed May 17 13:14:56 2017
6 comments Last updated: Thu May 18 10:28:01 2017