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Episode 1898: Meta Traveller in an Antique Land

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In improvisational acting, you can do virtually anything, and trust that your fellow improv artists will make up something that keeps you involved in the action. That's the nature of the activity. You can always trust in "fate" to do whatever it takes to let you keep playing.

It's not quite the same in roleplaying gaming. The Game Master is under no obligation to keep you alive, especially if you do something stupid like a frontal assault on a huge dragon. Or wander through a scorching desert completely at random.

Although in this case it may be a deliberate dramatic Schrödinger ploy by the GM: Whichever way Finn walks might lead to something interesting.

Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)

You haven't even presented any evidence Pete; perhaps you're projecting some? Really though, with the way Finn and the now former Poe crash-landed, there's not much to do except start walking in some direction. From what I can tell for being stranded somewhere, the best thing to do is stay put if you're not sure where to go. In this case though, staying put would mean hanging out near exploding sands. Probably not good odds of survival there.

Removing the white, probably heavy armor; good idea. Having mouth open for moisture loss; bad idea. Just holding jacket instead of protecting head with it or dropping it; worse idea. I guess it would be unfair to judge Finn's actions too harshly though. I would have to look up more desert survival tips if I was going to do any better I think; the closest desert to me is over 1200km/750mi away, and it's not even one of the endless sand dune kinds.

Hmmmm, I just thought of a way Poe might have lived through the crash and left their jacket behind. It's a little hard to tell in the clips from the cockpit, but I think he might have taken the jacket off after getting inside. And the fighter had an ejection seat for the gunner, so why not a second one for the pilot? The best way to survive a crash, after all, is to not be in the crash when it happens. If Poe did eject and survive, the question then is, how long until someone else remembers that and figures it out? With the GM in on the plan, Jim could end up playing a second character for a little bit just to throw everyone else off too.

Commentary by Keybounce (who has not seen the movie)

Wait, he's... really dead? No "I jury-rigged an explosion and put a fragment of wall between me and the blast"? I think I said something about the laws of good script writing.

Let's see. Ring cycle. This is paying homage to Episodes II and V, the rising and the falling. We've had one person coming out of the Dark Side, and one person going into the darkness. But now...

Who died in V? ... Ice planet, split party, Dagobah and off to save them, the whole kidnap to draw Luke out, closest is just the carbonite treatment, and he's rescued anyways.

Who died in II? ... Oh, some Jedi :-).

Ok, lets split the difference with a small number of deaths.

Now, what's a better way to stay cool in the desert sun? White armor to reflect heat away, or black body to absorb heat? ... I'm actually not sure. I'm certain, given this fan base, that someone will do the math in the forums, or DMM will do an IWC annotation on the subject.

Also, how is it metagaming to just say "I'm either going to get crazy lucky, or die, so let's just assume I'm going to get lucky and hope for the best"?

So: We've got a massive blast, on the "No one can possibly survive that!" scale. And if this is a hard science fiction game, where death is death, and there's no raise dead/resurrection, then being blown to bits by an explosion and buried in the sand is as good as "Disintegrate. Gust of wind". I'll say that it's "inconceivable" that he'll be coming back. I mean, what's the chance that he's sold his soul to assorted demons/devils and they're protecting his body deep in the sand to bring it back later? (Credit to the Giantitp forum for digging up that episode.)

Yep. Hard science fiction. Death is death. Even Anakin could not survive being blasted on the lava surface of Naboo once it had been boiled. And this campaign has no magical infinite energy source, no magical death repellant, no sir. Pure hard science.

Transcript

Finn: This... Poe... Nooo!!
Poe: {dead} It’s all good. I have a plan for a new character already.
Finn: I’m in character.
Poe: {dead} Oh, right. Carry on.
Finn: Okay Finn, pull yourself together. You’re stuck in a desert...
GM: The dry, scorching air parches your throat. Take another Fatigue point.
Finn: Water. I need to find water.
Finn: Do I see any clouds, or mountains?
GM: No. Just endless dunes as far as the eye can see.
Finn: I guess I trust Fate then. I pick a direction and strip off my armour as I start walking.
Rey: Are you metagaming...?
Finn: It’s an improv technique.
Rey: You are metagaming!
Finn: It’s not even gaming...
Rey: The prosecution rests!!


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Published: Tuesday, 29 September, 2020; 03:11:17 PDT.
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