The Aurora - Star Master Log: Grave Robbing a Car

Star Master Log

Sep 23

This Star Master’s Log was originally a Patreon exclusive! To get these logs two weeks early, bonus world-building posts, and behind-the-scenes secrets, join the inner circle at: patreon.com/DarkStarAdventurecast

Jeff let's loose on Episode Six, “The Aurora” diving into the chaos, character moments, and improvisation that shaped the story.

He covers:

How he improvised this episode (it was almost all improv!)
Lokipon, and it's enduring effects on the story
Inspiration for the Aurora, Froggy, and the radio station

New Star Master's Logs drop every other Tuesday, bridging the gap between our main adventure episodes.

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, it's Star Master Jeff here back with my special bonus series where I talk about how I plan the Dark Star Adventure cast available exclusively only for our Patreon listeners. In this debrief, I'm taking you down the road to check out episode six, the Aurora. I'll be talking about what was planned, what surprised me, and how much improvising I'm doing behind the screen.
If you're into GM ing world building or just wanna listen to me ramble on and on about this campaign that I run. This one's for you. Well, if you listen to the episode five star master log, you will know that episode six, it's much the same. Almost all of it is improv actually in this one, all of it is improv.
So we recorded episodes five and six the same night almost back to back. We took like a. 10 or 15 minute break between the two, you know, go to the [00:01:00] bathroom, get a drink. What I was doing is I was scribbling down some ideas. So I had laid this plot hook down where I knew that they were gonna be going to 17 Millstream Lane and also the, the nearby storage unit.
I didn't know that they were gonna go right away, but they decided it's sort of on the way. Let's go check it out, because we're very intrigued by the promise of potential treasure. So when they told me that's what they were gonna be doing immediately in the next session, which was happening in 15 minutes, I sat down and I started taking some notes.
So the first thing that I did was I wrote down that I need to know what this book is. I need to know what this mysterious machine is, and then I need to put some conflict in their way. Otherwise, what sort of an episode is that? I knew I wanted to do an exploration episode, so I didn't necessarily want combat.
If they had gone in a different direction, I could have maybe handed them some combat. If they had intentionally gone and gotten into some sort of trouble, they would've definitely had some combat. But in this [00:02:00] particular case, episode six feels more like an extension of the exploration that was already started in episode five.
We have the story of Michael and Claire, their home and you know, this mysterious machine and what happened to them in the hotel. So I wanted to close up that plot line. And finish it up with more exploration. That was rewarding. So I decided what this book is. I decided what this machine is. I decided what the atmosphere was gonna be like for Millstream Lane, and I had to quickly think about why the storage unit wasn't already pilfered when it's obvious that all storage units would have been broken into and completely ransacked by this point in Wolfe's history.
I just wrote down like four or five bullet points by hand at my desk and then ran off to grab a beer because that's what I always do during my break. I try to go get a refill on whatever I'm drinking that night. So I came back and the crew settled in for episode six by immediately going off to 17 Millstream Lane.
Of course, you listen to the episode, you already know what happened there. They found a book of recipes, [00:03:00] which some of them were excited about. Most of them were not excited about. And I think that it's important to say that this recipe book may not be everything that it seems. I'm sure they'll look at it again in the future and try to decipher exactly what's going on in there.
Even if it ends up just being a book of recipes. They have a kitchen on the scapegoat. There's no reason they can't come up with some excellent baked goods to share with each other around the dining room table. So while they were in 17 Millstream Lane, they asked if they had found any lo coupon cards in the child's bedroom, which I had actually completely forgotten about that one-Off Loon joke back in episode three.
I think if you're listening to the GM log from episode three, I think I, I even say something along those lines where I'm like, yeah, I just kind of threw it in there. It's like a Pokemon thing. They had a good laugh and we moved on, but it ended up becoming such a meme. Not at that point, but later on when we did this episode, because obviously in this episode they find some Loki coupon cards that are already pre-constructed into decks for them, and [00:04:00] they are immediately super interested in playing Loki Pond.
And at the soonest possible instance, they stop and play it. And we had a really good time recording a little game of Loki Pond, and my direction for them was just this game doesn't exist. Say whatever you want, and whatever you say will become gospel. I have a little running Bible of what Loki Pond terms have come into play.
One Loki Pond, the goal is to not catch anything. So instead of trying to catch 'em all, you're tried to avoid them at all costs. So Loki Pond are coming after you. They want an owner, they're begging for an owner, but you don't want Loki Pon, they just distract from real life. And you know, they suck all your funds and they don't actually give you anything in return.
So that's the idea behind the game. And then after that. You want to make your opponent catch Loki Pond, you want them to get stuck with them. So we ended up with Danger. PA is one of the Loki pond and it's, it was coming for Robert and, uh, playing like trap cards, [00:05:00] like forcing your opponent to trap a Loki pond and Terria, that was one that Doja called out as like a type of manna.
So that's all we have right now for Loki Pond, but I'm sure it will continue to grow in lore as the game has continued to be played because. They're straight up obsessed with it. At this point, they were talking about like drawing cards and like making up some cards to like share with people 'cause they just think it's such a cool idea.
So the Aurora, the plutonium based hover car that they find in Michael and Claire's storage unit, the first thing is just how cool it is. When I knew there was gonna be a car there and I wrote it down, oh yeah, mechanical thing, it's gonna be a cool Harvard car, right? When it actually came to improvising it, I was like, oh.
How is it still working? Okay, it's nuclear. Okay. And then I was like, oh, back to the future. This sucker's nuclear boom. Plutonium. And then I was like, hover car. And then I just, that's all I'm thinking of is the DeLorean now, even though this [00:06:00] looks more like a, a sports car with two doors. So they were super psyched to find the Aurora and I was super psyched to pepper in some more bits and pieces of Michael and Claire's life into the Aurora.
A photograph in the leather jacket. You learn that Michael has a construction company. They didn't really bite on any of those additional leads, which is fine. We needed to get on with the, the main narrative. But I did think it was really funny when Thorn puts on the leather jacket, sticks his hand in the pocket and he is like, ho, ho, what's this?
And then he pulls out a faded photo of the family and he just goes another faded photo and then he just turns the Felix and he is like, Hey, pass me those gloves. They go great with my jacket. I get the whole outfit. And he just like drops the photo. It kind of shows like how over it they were like. They heard Michael and Claire's story.
It's people from kind of a long time ago and now they're pilfering their goods and they don't really care about this family anymore. So it kind of goes to show what this crew is all about. They were sad initially, but that's what life in the [00:07:00] Veridian Expanse is like. It can be very rough. So they mourn for a minute, they move on and then they take all these objects that didn't belong to them, but do now.
Of course, then they leave the storage unit and they start making their way towards Black Harbor in the Aurora moving much faster. And they can definitely make it to Black Harbor much, much faster. But they decide they can't just drive up to the gate. They'd probably lose the car first and maybe be imprisoned second, or be turned into indentured servants in this fascist society.
So the first thing that Felix wants to do is just try to find exactly where the scapegoat is, and there is a signal that's sent out by the scapegoat that he can try to key in on. But he doesn't have a powerful enough antenna. It's more of an identifier that's used by spaceports to identify ships that are coming in.
So these space ports have these giant antennas on them to be able to pick up those radio waves. So they find a radio station and they go there. And so enters in Froggy Reginald, froggy Vance. What a character. [00:08:00] I didn't know they were gonna go to a radio station, so it's not something that I prepped between episodes five and six.
I kind of threw it out as an option because they were looking for a big antenna. So everything about this section in the radio tower was improvised. The voice of the wastes, froggy mannerisms, his attitude towards the group, the. Fact that the generator doesn't work and Froggy has tried to fix it and repair it over and over and over again.
It just felt so very real to me as someone who's tried to do my own house projects and made things worse before finally calling an expert to come in. I feel like a lot of us have been there as homeowners. So the scapegoat crew ends their episode at the radio station and they're trying to fix the generator, and they're kind of befriending froggy a little bit, and it'll be very interesting to see where that goes.
They're trying to fix the generator so they can get a lock on the scapegoat and then make their way to Black Harbor. So that's all coming in episode seven, and I really hope that you'll enjoy it because we had a really fun time making all of these episodes. But episode seven in [00:09:00] particular is pivotal in many ways.
It's in some ways the conclusion of several of the plot lines on Wolffia. If they can survive, it gives them a path forward to escaping back into space, hopefully with Dr. Vos. That's it for me today. Thanks for listening. Love you all. Bye for now.