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Lock and Key: An Orbital Blues Campaign
A routine trip to lock-up goes awry when opportunity strikes and outside interference leaves a chance for escape from a future in the behind bars.
TYPE
SYSTEM
LANGUAGE
EXPERIENCE
AGE
$20.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Sunday - 9:00 PM UTC
Session Duration / 2.75–3.25 hours
0 / 6 Seats Filled
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About the adventure
[Players of all experience levels welcome! If you're a fresh face to Orbital Blues this is a great place to start!] -- **Lock and Key** System: Orbital Blues Rating: 16+ Maybe you were at the wrong place at the wrong time, maybe someone important had it out for you, or maybe you just got what you deserved. However you wound up here though, once you step foot off of the inmate transport ship and onto whatever backwater place they expect you to serve your sentence, things are going to be worse than they are now. Your routine shuttle experience is thrown on its head when the unexpected happens and the soon to be chain-gang gets a chance to make an escape and live out their days in freedom. Assuming the inmates and guards don’t kill each other on the way out at least. Things like this don't happen out of nowhere though, what will you do when whoever set this little favor up for you comes looking for their payment. Just who they are and they price they'll ask remains to be seen if you can outrun the law long enough to find out. --- Tropes and Themes: Interstellar outlaw country – Revenge or freedom – Is there actually honor amongst thieves - Act now and ask questions later
Game style
Roleplay Heavy
Rule of Cool (RoC)
Theater of the Mind
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(26)
5 years on StartPlaying
173 games hosted
Highly rated for: Inclusive, Creativity, Storytelling
Average response time: 7 hours
Response rate: 100%
About me
Globetrotting fire-breather turned therapeutic GM. Cool, now that I've got your attention. I'm Xan, if the Therapeutic GMing is what got your eye the check out my psychology today listing at the bottom! What I like to do and what I've done are neat, so I'll list them a bit further down. Here's who I am though. I'm a life-long storyteller and performer. A bit of honeysuckle helps the southern gothic horror go down easy, and yes, I do in fact want to see a picture of your pet/s. I'll give you a run for your money with a pun contest *any* day of the week, and I live by the motto "Manic enthusiasm is still enthusiasm". Games have brought me joy, relief, and catharsis over the years and I can say without hesitation that they, and the friends I've made through them, have been a huge positive impact on my life. So I'm here to pay that joy back and be the background tapestry for your happy memories and kickass stories. "Rule of Cool" always par for the course and expect me to be just as invested in your characters as you are. I love to flesh a game out through how your character sees the world, "you walk into the market and an unexpected scent brings you back home for a split second. What is it?". I prioritize safety and making sure that I'm making my game suited to the players, not the other way around. Feel free to reach out to me if you'd like to talk about booking a private game or consultation about your own game. I'd love to help you make your own time as a GM the most rewarding it can be. I'm also available if you are looking for guests or experts in the topics at the intersection of mental health and TTRPGs. I'm also a founding member and the Director of International Relations for "Gaming The System(s)!" A 501(c)(3) nonprofit advocating for the applied use of games in Therapy and Classrooms And, the numbers! 30+ Featured Speaking events (including: PAX, Origins Game Fair, Save Against Fear, and The Therapeutic and Applied Gaming Growth Summit) 11 Years professional GM 1 published adventure in Rock and Roll 5e (zine) 50+ homebrew materials for DnD 3.5/5e, Pathfinder, VtM, Daggerheart and more 4 Hacks written 1 original game developed 1 Full length game in development 34 years of being a total badass Therapeutic Skill building‽‽ With games (or just with a cool coach)‽‽ Yup! Full disclosure though, listings on Startplaying *are not* therapeutic sessions. Those require a different approach, intent, and structure. Reach out on my Psychology Today page if you're interested and I'm happy to have that conversation with you on a HIPAA compliant server! 🤘 https://www.psychologytoday.com/profile/1380727
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
Character creation will happen in session zero, but if you have an idea before then the discord is a great place to talk shop for it. Orbital Blues has a lightning fast character creation so either way it won't involve a lot of heavy lifting. The only unique thing that Orbital Blues asks that might take more thought is picking a theme song for your character. It can change throughout the story, but there'll come a time for you to make the world move to your rhythm. -- This is a generative AI free game. Thanks in advance for not using Gen-AI character art.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
All you'll need to do is make sure that you have a discord and roll20 account so we can talk and roll some dice. For hardware you'll need microphone and a way to access roll20. A camera is great and highly encouraged but not required.
What Xan!!! brings to the table
I'll provide the discord server, the roll20 page, and the PDF. This is a light and fast game, so we won't have a ton of things to weigh us down here. If you aren't able to make character art of your own I'll be happy to throw something together on heroforge or piccrew for you.
Homebrew rules
Nothing out of the gate, but if you have your own idea for a Trouble or Gambit run it by me and we'll see what we can work out.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Xan!!! creates a safe table
There'll be a chance to suggest topics for lines/veils before session zero. During session zero we'll go over the basics like x-card and the open table policy. During every session there'll be a time to refresh, debrief, and take a short break.
Content warnings
Safety tools used