Red Dwarf RPG - Episode 1 on Saturday

As we're playing on Saturday, I thought I'd post a recap of what's going on. I'm treating the session we did a while back as the pilot episode, so characters have been tweaked a bit since then and there may not be perfect continuity (but then this is Red Dwarf, they don't really bother with continuity...).

In the 23rd century, the JMC freighter Canary Wharf left the solar system to take supplies to a new mining colony. The colony had seen successful exploratory digs, so Canary Wharf was carrying everything they would need to make a more permanent home.

As the ship passed through the Kuiper Belt, she lost communications and was attacked by pirates, who targetted one of the towed containers and were able to load some cargo onto their own vessel despite the efforts of the JMC crew. The defenders did inflict some casualties and even managed to damage the pirate vessel itself, which fired a cadmium-2 warhead at the Canary Wharf as a parting shot.

The radiation spread throughout the crew section of the ship, killing the crew. The only survivor is Paul Jackson, a rigger who was fighting the pirates and was knocked out. He was placed in a stasis locker by the ship's skutters and avoided the effects of the spreading radiation.

Following standard protocol, Denzil, the ship's AI, set a course away from the solar system at full power, and waited for the radiation to subside.

Three million years later, Paul can finally be revived...

Here's a synopsis of Series 1, Episode 1 - "Are you lonesome tonight?"

Having been dumped in a stasis locker amongst some fresh fruit and veg, Paul Jackson was surprised to be immediately let out again. He was further surprised to notice that the damaged container the locker was in appeared to have been fixed, and even further surprised to be told by Denzil that three million years were elapsed and the crew were dead.

He went to the drive room and met the hologram of James Cowling, switched on because his was the only personality disc that Denzil could find.

While they were talking about what to do next, and deciding that they may as well turn the ship around and head back to the solar system, Denzil casually mentioned that they were on a collision course with another ship. As the crew asked for some further details, Canary Wharf crashed, wedging the other vessel, a cruise ship, in the ram scoop.

This was going to cause problems, so Paul and James went aboard the other ship after some issues with the airlock, and were greeted by Lucy, the ship's AI. She offered them a drink, which turned out to be several thousand litres of beer delivered through the fire sprinklers at high pressure.

Once they'd got out of that mess, they were able to find and release a wax droid of Elvis Presley, who was chained to a stage and not thrilled about the situation. Further antics ensued, including meeting a helpful, yet sadly limbless, mechanoid on the verge of death, and being attacked by overgrown evolved plants in the ship's garden.

Eventually they made it to the control section, and it was a simple matter to fight off a horde of rampaging foot-high punch and judy munchkin robots and then activate the maneuvering thrusters to get the ship out of the way.

Thus, Canary Wharf gains a new crewman, who comes with his own sparkly jumpsuit...

Is everyone happy with their characters? It's easy enough to tweak them or replace them altogether if need be.