[MarcoSkoll]

Oh dear...

That's an option, I guess, Euan. I could advance ideas I've got up to a playable standard fairly sharpish, but it probably wouldn't be ready until at least next week.

Alternatively, as a bit of a wild card suggestion (and as I already joking mentioned it), I could arrange RT for the Thursdays (with the DH possibly still running on Mondays) until the schedule is ready to return. That would however mean a lot of arranging, between trying to find Rich and the talk with our players who don't have RT characters.

[Koval]

Well I'll be on for a bit of banter in any case. In fact, I'm on Skype right now

[MarcoSkoll]

Right.

Thinking through the revelation that Quickdraw has now booked himself into Mondays and we therefore have two missing players from both timeslots. This means we have a maximum of three at each, with some players who sometimes have to miss due to work anyway (maybe four if you count myself).

Now, as I said last night, it might be possible to run a game for each timeslot, at least for a while. That might be Rogue Trader for one and Dark Heresy for the other.
However, it occurs to me that it would be possible to do Dark Heresy for both, using it for a split party mechanic without the issues we had trying to run it all in one session. (And, if I were really really clever, have both pertain to different parts of the same story).

That would mean that Koval, the one player (other than myself) who can actually make both sessions, would probably need to adopt a new character for one of the split parties, which isn't perfect - still, it's an idea that won't require putting one group of the players into the unrelated story of RT or shaft anyone on XP.

Any thoughts?

(Whatever happens, it's probably not going to be ready for the coming session(s) though. Just bear that in mind.)

[Koval]

I'll take care of Novus if need be.

[MarcoSkoll]

That's one possibility, but what I've got in mind will allow the introduction of a different character if that would more take your fancy.

I've already got to account for Grizbain and Turlough anyway, it's not a big deal to figure one more character.

[Koval]

We may already be dealing with enough "different" just from having Turlough.

[MarcoSkoll]

Whatever you'd prefer. Of course, voting is still out on exactly what people want to do at the moment.

As for my perspective - well, much as I would like to return to Rogue Trader, I'm guessing double Dark Heresy will keep the momentum better until such a point as we're all ready for Thursdays again and Euan can run his story.

[Heroka Vendile]

I like the sound of that Marco, be a fair bit of work on your end I imagine though, but it does sound like a good solution – although how readily Quickdraw can swap his work schedule back around in a couples months time I wouldn't know.

Considering how much I've sort of gubbed up taking over as GM, I'm happy to bounce ideas with you next week for the wider structure of any adventure (obviously me knowing or helping create the fine details would defeat the purpose in playing).
With both Turlough and Grizbain having established relationships with Overseer Katia Bayev (and each other) that were significantly structured to lead straight into my campaign, my core recommendation would be to confine the adventure to the space station I believe we're currently aboard and the planet below (if it orbits one). Meaning it can act as a good "while we're waiting for transport, this also needs looked at".

[MarcoSkoll]

I like the sound of that Marco, be a fair bit of work on your end I imagine though, but it does sound like a good solution

Neat, another vote.

It probably is going to be a bit complex, but I'm getting ideas.

how readily Quickdraw can swap his work schedule back around in a couples months time I wouldn't know.

Probably more easily than changing it back again just after having just made all the arrangements to change it.

However, whatever the answer is, the unfortunate truth is that it's one thing to be making concessions while we've got two people who can't make Thursdays but it's less workable to be making concessions for just one player.

With both Turlough and Grizbain having established relationships with Overseer Katia Bayev (and each other) that were significantly structured to lead straight into my campaign, my core recommendation would be to confine the adventure to the space station I believe we're currently aboard and the planet below (if it orbits one). Meaning it can act as a good "while we're waiting for transport, this also needs looked at".

If I remember correctly, Port Alcis is a stand alone station. And, seeing as it's Koval's brainchild, I'm wary of writing too much of it for a story.

What I have in mind would probably involve a stop along the way. Perhaps the warp travel equivalent of a train or plane change - we're more likely to be travelling commercially than privately, as the Inquisition can't have private or commandeered ships for running around every last group of agents.
And as warp journeys can take days or weeks in real time, one might imagine that a changeover wouldn't be too hasty a process.

From there, we have a reasonable justification to use a new setting, but still fit it within the previously planned timeline.

But if necessary, I did briefly introduce Interrogator Regin (better known as "Gala") for the one-shot the other week*. (The justification there was that she'd been meeting with Fabian in Lyra's stead - she mentioned there'd been discussion of our team, but that probably wasn't the core reason for their meeting. Likely far more important and secret things).

I wouldn't feel too guilty about suggesting that she had taken the liberty of 'suggesting' an alternative route so she could borrow the team along the way.
I imagine Bayev might not be best impressed, but ultimately Gala is effectively second in command to Inquisitor Rhodes**, so it is sort of within her remit.

* It didn't come up, but she does have a DH character sheet. Which, amongst other things, includes a +30 bonus to cooking.

** This reminds me. Regarding the question of putting the team in the hands of a more 'neutrally-owned' character than Rhodes, an alternative short of reassigning the team to another Inquisitor would be introducing another Interrogator/Overseer/Arch-Master/etc for Inquisitor Rhodes that we could collectively write.
Put the team under them in the hierarchy, and then other GMs can be more confident about having the boss in the story if they want.

[Koval]

If I remember correctly, Port Alcis is a stand alone station. And, seeing as it's Koval's brainchild, I'm wary of writing too much of it for a story.

It's sort of a standalone station. Admittedly it isn't orbiting a planet (because I have no idea of the physics involved when there's a major space station orbiting a planet that itself is orbiting two suns), but it is within the Dioskor system, and close enough to New Gemini itself that there's a steady flow of traffic going through/past it.

What I have in mind would probably involve a stop along the way. Perhaps the warp travel equivalent of a train or plane change - we're more likely to be travelling commercially than privately, as the Inquisition can't have private or commandeered ships for running around every last group of agents.
And as warp journeys can take days or weeks in real time, one might imagine that a changeover wouldn't be too hasty a process.

Well, Fabian did have to call in a considerable number of favours to get you the Savage Chicken -- doing it too often would indeed get a bit old.

Having said that, what about having part of the adventure take place on the ship on which you're catching a ride?

But if necessary, I did briefly introduce Interrogator Regin (better known as "Gala") for the one-shot the other week*. (The justification there was that she'd been meeting with Fabian in Lyra's stead - she mentioned there'd been discussion of our team, but that probably wasn't the core reason for their meeting. Likely far more important and secret things).

Makes sense, given that we've established the two to be on fairly good terms. If such a thing exists in the Inquisition.

** This reminds me. Regarding the question of putting the team in the hands of a more 'neutrally-owned' character than Rhodes, an alternative short of reassigning the team to another Inquisitor would be introducing another Interrogator/Overseer/Arch-Master/etc for Inquisitor Rhodes that we could collectively write.
Put the team under them in the hierarchy, and then other GMs can be more confident about having the boss in the story if they want.[/i]

Having a second Interrogator sort of invalidates one of the reasons why Alice ended up being palmed off to Fabian, but aside from that, another lower-ranking operative should work just fine. I rather like it.

[MarcoSkoll]

Admittedly it isn't orbiting a planet (because I have no idea of the physics involved when there's a major space station orbiting a planet that itself is orbiting two suns)

Complex and weird. Predicting orbits with more than two significant gravitational masses is difficult.

Four body systems can prove themselves stable if the effects of various of the bodies aren't too large - see Sun + Jupiter + Earth + Moon (which has been stable for over four and a half billion years) - but they would get more complex when the effects of various bodies gets more significant (as a second sun would be).

However, while my intuition is that it wouldn't be naturally very stable - at the very least, it'd be likely to have a fairly eccentric orbit - it could be made feasible in the long term by moderately trivial station-keeping. Of course, moderately trivial becomes still becomes very significant when trying to manoeuvre the equivalent of a large city in space.

Well, Fabian did have to call in a considerable number of favours to get you the Savage Chicken -- doing it too often would indeed get a bit old.

That's not exactly the first time favours have been called in to get an Inquisition vessel to assist us either.

Although, that said, Inquisitor Skoll turning up was originally planned to lead into a short Rogue Trader cross-over* that had to be written off when Rich and I couldn't get the schedules to line up well enough.
*The plan was that the RT group would have assisted in a space battle to get several strike teams (of which the DH group was one) aboard a traitor ship that had managed to run the Ilithyian blockade.

I suspect the ultimate reason would be it was the favour Lyra could pull in at the shortest notice* when it turned out the party would need a hot extract.
*Not surprisingly, seeing as there's some unknown factor about the Ynys that means while its warp travel doesn't appear to be all that fast in "on-board time", it suffers little to no time dilation in the warp - and therefore takes a lot less real time to travel.

Having said that, what about having part of the adventure take place on the ship on which you're catching a ride?

I'm not sure quite how that would easily integrate.

Having a second Interrogator sort of invalidates one of the reasons why Alice ended up being palmed off to Fabian, but aside from that, another lower-ranking operative should work just fine. I rather like it.

Well, I'd actually recommend a rank of non-specific position in the hierarchy anyway, such that they could be overruled or overrule others as was most plot convenient and retain command as long as we want/need even as our character's own ranks progress.

[Heroka Vendile]

Interestingly I was imagining that Bayev was coming to the tail end of her "grace period" as a newly promoted Overseer, having proved effective but ultimately stymied in her first operation in the rank, the coming events on Levongard are her second chance to prove herself fully capable of the task.
So having another more experienced/established Overseer replace/order her around would work just fine.

Making the interim investigation something that goes on mid-journey to Levongard sounds like a good idea – plus Bayev can be busy "off screen" the whole time doing research and planning for Levongard, while this other Overseer steps in to borrow the group briefly while they wait on their transfer.

[MarcoSkoll]

I think I'd still default to Gala for this particular operation - and there's no question about her rank; she's already established as Rhodes' Interrogator. (Don't worry - while she will probably be an active NPC, she's not going to just overrule all the PCs).

It makes a bit more sense than introducing another character at this point - and as she's already an established character of mine, she'll be less prep work. Trying to let everyone have their creative input into who our new boss is inside a week is a schedule for which the word "hectic" would be an understatement.

[Koval]

I do agree that using Gala would be easier, though I do still wonder whether the "collaborative character" might be an option for a longer-term project once we're suitably far into Bayev's mission.

EDIT: My internet's becoming rather unstable again, so I'll have to play it by ear tomorrow.

[MarcoSkoll]

I didn't mean to imply the idea should be shelved - it's definitely an option for the future, and in the long run far more convenient than the current situation. However, in the short term, it's not really possible to properly implement in time.