Tavern Watch Plays Planet Mercenary, episode 1: Welcome to the space kitten rescue squad

Our crew of mercenaries has an unusual mission: to rescue some kind of space kitten, whose owner is very concerned for its wellbeing. But its owner’s brother will pay us to not bring it home, so it’s probably a troublesome space kitten. (But it’s just as likely to be completely average kitten.) At least we’re pretty sure it’s a kitten. Our client didn’t give us many details, but it’s got to be kitten-adjacent, right?

This week on Tavern Watch Plays, we’re doing an actual play of Planet Mercenary, a comic space opera based off of the Schlock Mercenary webcomics (but you don’t need to be familiar with the comics to understand the game). Joan Albright is leading this game, with a colorful cast of team players who are sure to be able to handle rescuing a single animal from an alien planet. Here are our players:

• Trish (AwkwardishPanda) as Raven Crawford, captain of the Jackdaws mercenary company, and who is possibly regretting some of her hiring decisions during this mission.
• Christian as Brother Ron, the ship’s chaplain, who offers the wisdom and comfort of the Star to help guide the crew in their journeys. He also carries a suspicious number of grenades, but that’s probably just the wisdom of the Star at work.
• Liz as Eleanor Goodbite, an awakened polar bear but also the ship’s doctor. (She also carries a suspicious number of grenades, because sometimes offense is the best defense.)
• Kameron (Tetsemi) as Helena Seonwu, the Jackdaws’ legal counsel, who is here to read all of the annoying fine print in the contracts — and make sure everybody gets paid.
• Matt as Hudson James, an awakened wolverine who is also the ship’s engineer. Ostensibly that means he’s here to fix things, but he’s also a wicked shot with the plasma rifle he carries.

This is the first in a three-part actual play of Planet Mercenary, and you can tune in every Monday for another new episode. If you enjoy the game, you can pick up a copy of Planet Mercenary from the Schlock Mercenary store or DriveThruRPG.

Music for this episode is “Galactic Echoes” from ineedmusic.co.

You can listen to the podcast directly from this post or click on “Follow” in the player below to follow the podcast in your podcast player of choice and download directly to your device.

For more Tavern Watch, check out all of our recent episodes, including our recent return to the surreal world of Triangle Agency, in a three-episode run that includes pizza puns, business slide decks, and secret agents saving the world from just a smidgen of body horror. Here’s the first episode; I highly suggest giving it a listen! If you’re looking for something else, we play new games almost every week, so be sure to give us a follow!

Subscribe to Tavern Watch to keep up with future episodes. Just search for Tavern Watch Podcast in your podcast platform of choice, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. You can also catch up on our other podcasts on our podcast page. And if you subscribe to our Patreon at Tier 2 or above you can listen to our podcasts early and ad-free, as well as get the uncut Blizzard Watch Podcast with bonus pre-show content.

Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy the show!