2300AD Campaign History |
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2300AD Campaign History |
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Bruce Dawn Sky ( Dave Webb )
An aborigine troubleshooter and later a starship engineer from the Australian colony of Botany Bay, Bruce Dawn Sky also occasionally went under the pseudonym of Clifton Suspension-Bridge. Bruce was involved in an incident with the Hong Kong Police Department which left several officers dead and destroyed at least one helicopter and one personnel carrier. He left Earth as a result of this and of his encounter with Ferris (see below), and acquired a fugitive status.
Bruce was a member of the original crew of the Alexander Graham Bell and remained associated with the vessel until the very end, when he set the controls for the heart of a nearby star shortly before retiring into obscurity. By then, the Hong Kong police were the least of his worries - the Manchurian Space Navy, the Yakuza and the Triads were also after him, and he was involved in a civil court case with Hyde Dynamics over patent ownership.
Jeremiah Biggles ( Andy Gibbs )
The first pilot to fly the Centauri Run in less than one hour, using a starship based upon Bruce Dawn Sky's designs and built by Hyde Dynamics, the American military engineering giant. Jeremiah Biggles was also involved in the fiasco in Hong Kong, and was a member of the original Alexander Graham Bell crew, where he was the senior pilot. He purchased an Exeterclass SDB with the profits from the Centauri Run, and was last seen heading towards the French Arm, intending to be involved in the clean up after the Kafer Invasion.
Ibrahim Sternmeyer ( John Learner )
The third member of the original Alexander Graham Bell crew although he was not present in Hong Kong, Sternmeyer became heavily involved with DGSE, the French Intelligence Agency and acted on their behalf at least four times during his career. Sternmeyer refitted the security systems on the Alexander Graham Bell, to such a level of complexity that no one ever successfully stole the ship despite several attempts to do just that. He also co-founded Touch 'n' Go, the ill-fated biosoft company that would have swept the market with its revolutionary biosoft skillware packages. In the end, he was sent mad by the abuse of implanted hypnotic commands by Bruce Dawn Sky, who discovered his DGSE training.
Jacob Trevellion ( Matt Jones )
The fourth and last member of the original Alexander Graham Bell crew line up, the ship's gunner and sensor operator. Trevellion was, like Dawn Sky and Biggles, involved in the incident in Hong Kong, and was finally arrested for his part in those crimes. Trevellion developed a combat system known as the BattleJack through the Sensys corporation ( of which he was sole director ) ,along with several other related products ( the Can O' Chaff, the GammaJack and the prototype HiJack system ), and was known for his sense of style. At one stage he even syndicated a cartoon series based loosely on the exploits of himself and his fellows, complete with a line of merchandise to go with it ! He was in prison when the group disbanded, though he was recently released.
Doctor Beverley ( Sarah Ayers )
A medical expert hired by the team during the build up to the Centauri Run. Present location unknown.
Jean Luc Picacard-D'Anycard ( Roger Morbey )
A colonist from 82 Eridani, Jean Luc was part of the crew of the Alexander Graham Bell under Jacob Trevellion and Bruce Dawn Sky. His current whereabouts are unknown.
Major Arcana Reeves( Matt Steward )
An employee of Bruce Dawn Sky near the end, Arcana's main claim to fame was the elimination of Doktor Avalanche, the corporate hitman who had plagued Dawn Sky for so long. Arcana was left behind to man the Prospero base while Dawn Sky attended to matters elsewhere, and is presumably still marooned on L347-14 II.
Lister ( Claire Hopkins )
An annoying, inquisitive member of the Sung race, aerial sentients from a system in the Chinese Arm. Lister was given to acting first and thinking second, such as the time when it managed to knock itself unconcious whilst flying by firing a sonic stun gun ...
Lithium Cole ( Mike Learner )
A console cowboy and netrunner, perhaps one of the best in that dubious profession. However, while his confidence and prowess in cyberspace remain unquestioned, Lithium was very much a coward in the real world, often hysterical in combat situations. He acquired a mainframe system towards the end and set up Touch 'n' Go with Ibrahim Sternmeyer. Unfortunately, his past caught up with him when the Turing Heat traced him to the company premises, and he was forced to flee. Lithium died a fugitive, at the hands of Bruce Dawn Sky, who detonated a suitcase full of explosives while Lithium was still jacked in.
Ferdinand Rodriguez ( Dave Semark )
A Cuban mercenary who occasionally crossed paths with the others, and mostly kept himself to himself. Rodriguez was more associated with Picacard and Cole than anyone else, and left to pursue his own mysterious objectives sometime before the final scenario.
There is some confusion about the exact order of scenarios and who played in each one. However, the information presented below is as accurate as possible. Also note that for at least the first three, maybe four scenarios, I ran each scenario twice, once with DW, MJ, AG and JL and then once more with DS, ML and RM. I finally merged the two parallel groups sometime after the scenario "Mitchell".
I have adopted an "episode guide" style for the following, since to me at least it would have made great TV. Especially with Babylon 5 style special effects ... and of course, Ridley Scott directing it.
Episode One : Hard Times in Hong Kong
Originally broadcast on the 28th January 1990
An introductionary scenario to the world of 2300 AD, set as the title suggests in the city of Hong Kong on Earth. The PCs discovered a computer virus belonging to Wolf GmbH, a wholly owned subsidary of Strauss Genetics GmbH, who planned to use the virus in a corporate extraction. However, Strauss had been betrayed by one of their own men, one Dwight Mitchell, and the virus had been lost, until the PCs came across it. The Security Director for Strauss Asia, a coldly logical man named Ferris, forced the team to avenge Strauss by eliminating Mitchell. To provide an incentive, he placed slowly dissolving sacs of Palytoxin in their bloodstreams.
Episode Two :The Ballad Of Cable Hogue
Originally broadcast on the 29th April 1990.
The adventurers followed Mitchell to Gateway station, where they missed him by hours. Here they signed on as the crew of a courier ship, the Alexander Graham Bell, under Captain Cable Hogue, whom they first met in Kostmeyer's, a popular bar. Hogue had defaulted on his payments on the ship, and Sensei, the loan shark who had fronted the money, attempted to eliminate him. Fortunately for Hogue, the adventurers saved his life at least twice. In the process, they met the Monofilament Quartet, four highly trained assassins under the leadership of Doktor Avalanche, who would become a thorn in their side in the future. Avalanche followed the PCs over the next two years, blaming them for the death of fellow Quartet member Sister Midnight, who was also his lover.
(Incidentally, the title is taken from an old western I saw a few years ago and which I heartily recommend ...)
Episode Three : Mitchell
Originally broadcast on the 11th July 1990
The final showdown with Mitchell came after a lucky tip off while in port. The Alexander Graham Bell overtook the vessel that Mitchell had stowed away upon, and which an unconnected group of hijackers had taken over. After a complicated firefight, the PCs finally got their man, but too late to return to Earth and have the toxin sacs removed and at the cost of Cable Hogue's life. Their only choice, to continue to Beta Canum Venaticorum and reach the Pentapods. At this stage, other bad news reached them. The Kafer war had begun in earnest with the destruction of Hochbaden.
Episode One : Heads
Original broadcast date Summer 1990
Inspired by the book of the same title by Greg Bear.
While on the outpost world of Davout, Cole and Rodriguez helped carry a cargo of cryogenically frozen heads to a remote scientific research station. These heads were the remains of those unfortunates beyond the reach of 24th century medical science, yet who were rich enough to pay for their heads to be perfectly preserved in the hope that they could one day be revived. The storage of the heads in the "ice pit" facility funded the mad research of the owner of the station, William Pierce, who sought to acheive negative Kelvin and in the end managed to kill himself when his experiment caused the crystallisation of local space time and overloaded his equipment. Pierce had a bizarre computer known as a Quantum Logic Thinker, or QLT for short, which reasoned in terms of probabilities rather than absolute boolean logic.
Episode Two : Project Deepstream
Original broadcast date Summer 1990
Inspired by the film The Abyss
Following their much deserved R&R, the adventurers were alerted by one of their old crewmates aboard the Bell that a colleague had been found murdered, supposedly drowned. Investigations into his death slowly revealed a plot to blame the mass poisoning of thousands of acres of French agricultural land on the coast upon the Pentapod enclave. This evil plan was the brainchild of the Diasporan Protective, a society ostensibly protecting Mankind's colonies amongst the stars but really following a xenophobic agenda of its own. The adventurers managed to reach the poisonous material in time, before an explosive device released the spores into the deep ocean currents, and ultimately the French coastline. In recognition of this service, they were awarded with medals. They then fled Beta Canum before the Kafers got there.
Episode Three : Fallen Angel
Originally broadcast 30th December 1990
Only JL played in this scenario using his original character, everyone else generated a Ukrainian Marine. The scenario was basically a short skirmish against the Kafers, with Sternmeyer acting on behalf of French Intelligence to recover important data from a fallen recon satellite. Sternmeyer's presence in the Aurore system was apparently due to him being part of a task force sent to relieve the besieged forces there ...
Episode Three : The Centauri Run
Original broadcast date unknown
Inspired by the "Kessel Run" quote made by Han Solo in Star Wars
Bruce Dawn Sky managed to sell his engine designs to Hyde Dynamics, who then suggested that the new Stutterwarp Drive compete in the Centauri Run, the race between Alpha Centauri and Proxima Centauri held every four years, a distance of 0.24 light years. Jeremiah Biggles won the race in record time ( less than one hour ! ), despite interference from the Yakuza entry and from their old enemy Ferris. Ferris fled afterwards when the Yakuza expressed their unhappiness towards him.
If memory serves, there may have been another scenario called "The Long Arm" or something similar, where the PCs were captured on board a Tula class frigate, a wheel shaped cruiser in the Ukrainian fleet serving Terran OQC ( Orbital Quarantine Command ).
There is some doubt over the sequence of scenarios here, and what actually happened. Dates are correct according to my personal diaries, however.
Episode One : Terra Infirma
Original broadcast date early 1991
The adventurers were "reactivated" by the AIA, the American Intelligence Agency, on Gateway Station at the top of the Terran Beanstalk. Several months had passed since they were last together. One PC (not a regular cast member ) foolishly tried to steal Dawn Sky's engine designs, a decision that ended in his death.
Episode Two ? : Adrenochrome
Original broadcast date 17th April 1992
This scenario marked the death of Ferris. Other than that, no information is available.
Episode Three ? : The Marauders
Original broadcast date 31st May 1992
The adventurers were hired by Aspen, a corporate whose shipping company had experienced difficulties with an active pirate group operating out of the Chinese Arm. They were payed to hunt down and destroy this group, a mission which led them ultimately to L347-14 II, an inhospitable failed core world conveniently placed near major shipping routes. After the pirates were eliminated, Dawn Sky decided that L347-14 II would become his base of operations. He filed a territorial claim having discovered a source of the much prized tantalum on the planet, and renamed the world Prospero. As an incidental note, this scenario saw the demise of Doktor Avalanche, who died at the hands of Major Arcana Reeves.
Episode Four ? : The Rumours Of My Assassination
Original broadcast date unknown
I can remember very little about this scenario except that it featured an assassination attempt on Aspen in a museum which he was due to open. It was also the last scenario to feature Rodriguez and Trevellion.
Episode Five ? : Teratogenesis
Originally broadcast on the 5th July 1992
Based on Jurassic Park
Dawn Sky and Cole, along with two employees of Dawn Sky's operation stayed at Aspen's villa on a tropical island on Tirane in the Alpha Centauri system. While there, they came across a secret research base established by InGen, Inc., where an experiment to rebuild dinosaurs from fossil DNA preserved in amber had gone wildly out of control. They were forced to fight a number of supposedly extinct creatures, including Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus before repairing the damaged Alexander Graham Bell and leaving. In the process, they retrieved sample DNA for the dinosaurs, which they then sold to Tao Biogenics for a small fortune. It is thought that Dawn Sky still has this DNA. Cole also acquired a mainframe in the same scenario, which was later impounded by the Turing Heat in their raid upon Touch 'n' Go's headquarters.
Episode Six ? : The Tempest
Originally broadcast on the 27th September 1992
The final confrontation between Bruce Dawn Sky and his many enemies, which culminated in a "bar room brawl" when the Manchurian Space Navy-backed triads, the Yakuza and Hyde Dynamics operatives cornered Dawn Sky and his companions in the Ground Zero bar. Dawn Sky escaped with his life, and was then recaught by an Admiral aboard the cruiser Jade Palace. He escaped again, destroying the cruiser in the process. Lithium Cole never made out of the Ground Zero. He died in an explosion while still jacked in. Biggles left quietly under cover of a mimetic polycarbon cloak. He then left the planet in his Exeter class. As for the others, see above.
I returned to the world of 2300AD nearly two whole years later with the following scenario, intended to be a big "reunion" of all the main players after we had managed to spread ourselves over the entire United Kingdom.
Reunion
Originally broadcast on the 10th December 1994
Dawn Sky, Biggles, Trevellion, Sternmeyer, Rodriguez, Picacard and the enigmatic ROM Construct of Lithium Cole were hired by an unknown agency to acquire a Delta-class Kafer starship for the personal collection of a very rich, eccentric and anonymous individual. ( In the end, only Biggles, Trevellion, Picacard and Rodriguez played in this scenario, the players behind the other characters being unable to make it to the game ). In the process they visited Wiseman, the location of a secret Kafer base during the Kafer War, and although they did successfully capture the Kafer vessel it was not without the accidental near-manslaughter of Biggles by Trevellion ( who fired a CLP-1A plasma gun at part of the Kafer base and caught Biggles in the blast radius ).
Then, with Biggles in a Pentapod Stabiliser and against mounting odds, the team successfully captured a badly damaged Delta-class. Failure to communicate with a team of Ylii aboard the vessel led to further confusion and finally a catastrophic reactor overload. The team escaped by the skin of their teeth and returned to Earth empty-handed but alive.
After the epic scale of Reunion, I had painted myself into a corner and was unable to top it. I retired from 2300AD until later in 1995, when I started a smaller, more low key campaign set in Corpus Christi and much more Cyberpunk than space opera. This campaign fizzled out, perhaps because everyone involved had expected another campaign of epic proportions. I ran two scenarios, with none of the original characters. The first scenario involved stolen "super conducting liquid crystals" and corruption in the Paradyne Corporation ; the second was concerned with the Mayoral Elections in Corpus, and culminated with a desperate struggle onboard an airship in the Gulf of Mexico.
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This page was last updated on the 30th June 1997.
This page is © 1997 Andy Brick except where components are already copyright / trademarked by others in which case their use is not intended as a challenge to such ownership.