(11) Count Down – Setting Up For A Mission

It was one of those nights again. But Levi didn’t mind. He was a night owl. He was at his best late at night. Maybe it was because there were so few distractions late at night. Maybe because there was nothing scheduled on his calendar so he was free to do his own projects. Maybe because… wait a minute! He heard a noise! Who else would be walking the corridors at this time of the day (er, night)?

Levi thought of Avery as a kind of kindred spirit in that they both liked to be up late at night (ie, REALLY late!) And he knew this about Avery without even needing to read it in her Personnel file:

Due to a rare DEC2 gene mutation, Avery needs remarkably little sleep, making her an ideal candidate for long, demanding missions. Countless nights spent pacing the decks during boring graveyard shifts led her to develop a unique connection with the Vanguard itself and its humming alien core. Some fear that given the choice: her crewmates or the ship, she would choose the latter without blinking.

Avery loved walking the corridors late at night because she could do so uninterrupted!

Hiya AV!

Oh no, it was Levi!

Hi Levi … can’t sleep?

Nah… I sleep fine. I just wake up late… like about noon!

Avery smiled as Levi laughed. She was a night owl too … but also an early bird!

That Virtual Reality Concert yesterday was really nice Levi. Thanks for getting Mark and Klara to set that up for us!

Aww … it was mostly for me… I like her music. It is so uplifting, even without words. Actually, it is even more uplifting because there are no words to distract me. It just brightens my day (or night) and gives me a “good” feeling.

Yeah … have to agree with that Levi! But for me, the sound of a starship late at night is the best. Can you hear it Levi? Can you hear the constant soft sounds that always are there? But you can barely hear them when everyone is talking and bustling about!

Levi stopped walking. Avery too. They paused to just listen.

Yes! That is a very nice soft sound. We should record it so we can listen to it in our rooms as we go to bed!

Already did that Levi. I will send the sound track over to you. [see end of this article]

Great! Thanks AV! Now I better get my blessing prepared for the new day! Almost time for the Wake Up Chimes!

And not much later those Wake Up Chimes were chiming. Well, actually it was Levi who was chiming to everyone in Engineering as they were waking up:

Rise and Shine Sleepy Heads! God’s promise through the prophet Haggai is yours today!
I pray that your blessings will go on and on and on and on.
=> Blessing 20 (Engineering) (full blessing – printable PDF with clickable links)

That got them off to a good start on the new day! But what about upcoming Missions?

Actually figuring out just HOW to get your next mission set up as you are finishing your Ship Phase for a prior mission is confusing. I couldn’t find a concise guide to it myself (I looked!!!). There is the tutorial start. And the quick start for the first mission. And scattered references in the Ship Book. But I didn’t see a procedure for how to start your NEXT missions (ie, your 2nd, 3rd, and 4th missions)! I actually got confused trying to find it. So, here is what I think the proper procedure is… in EIGHTEEN EASY STEPS:

Navigate to the desired star system and review the page in the System Maps book for that star system. See previous article=> Navigating The Star Systems
Choose the planet you will send your Away Team to using the System Maps book. It will have the lander icon in front its line entry on the bottom half of the star system page. See previous article=> Navigating IN a Star System
SCAN THE PLANET (optional, but highly recommended) If you want to SCAN you need to do it BEFORE the following steps! Note: do NOT read the briefing referenced at the top of the Planet card yet! Only do the scans! See the previous article=> To Scan or Not To Scan
Choose how many Sections will go on the mission. Consider the results of your scans! If it sounds really dangerous, do you want a smaller Away Team? If there might be lots of discoveries in store, maybe a larger team to gather as many as possible? If less than 4, choose which Sections will go. Place the Crew Board for each Section that will be on the Away Team on the table.
Choose the crewmembers for the Away Team, one from each Section that is going on the mission (page 23 of the Ship Book tells you to scan before selecting your Away Team crewmembers, which you already did in step 3, right?). You may not choose any crewmember that is “resting”… only those who are still “available” (and there MUST be at least one in each Section per the rules!) Place each crewmember card in its slot on the matching Section Crew Board and note their rank!
Choose the Section dice for each Section (see Ship Book page 23). Note that the higher ranked crew are allowed to take more dice as indicated by the dice slots on the Crew Board. Take as many dice as possible. Place the dice in the corresponding color columns on the Section Crew Board (position each die with the icon side up that has brackets in the corners).
Choose the Section cards for each Section (see Ship Book page 23). Note that some Section cards are restricted for use only by rank 2 or rank 3 crew. You must take at least 10 cards but can take more (hint: only take 10 that you think will help most with the specific upcoming mission based on your planet scans … you DID do scans, right?) Shuffle the cards for each Section and place them next to the Section Crew Board.
Choose the lander that you will use (page 18 of the Ship Book tells you to select your lander after you do your scans, which we did in step 3). As you start the campaign you only have one lander, the Space Ranger, but there are 5 others that you might be able to build later in the campaign. Place its LARGE tray card out on the table:

Also get out the matching lander card that you will use during your landing attempt and place it on the table as well:
Choose what lander mods (if any) you want to add to your lander. Note that each mod will have pros and cons… they each provide a benefit, but at a cost (that varies depending on the mod):
Get out your Danger Die … you likely will need it as you attempt your landing:
Once you have chosen your lander and mods you will know how many of each type of equipment you are allowed to bring with you. From your available equipment choose the equipment cards that you wish to take with you and place them on the lander tray.
Place the Planetopedia on the table opened to the planet that you will be landing on:

Look for the lander icon(s) on the game board! Some maps might have more than one lander sector!
Fill all the spots on the game board as indicated: Unique Discovery cards, Mission Objective card, and Global Condition card
Randomly choose a rank up card – sometimes the top of the game board has a spot indicated for it, otherwise just place it near the game board to remind everyone what the rank up criteria is.
Place your five discovery card decks just above the top of the game board as indicated across the top edge of the page.
TIP: also look at the top of the OTHER page … if you see spots marked for THREAT cards, then you know that you WILL encounter, um … threats!
Place the event card deck on the table because each player will need to draw one event card at the end of their turn (this is waived for your first few turns in the first tutorial mission).
NOW FINALLY … read the planet briefing log entry referenced at the top of the planet card (that is in your Scanner) and send your Away Team off in their lander!

The log entry you just read will be the procedure for your landing and usually will include information as well as a chart that you use along with the Danger Die!
There ARE other set up things to do yet, but I think you want to “land” first:)