The Treasure Hunters of Mega

Notes

The game actually had a false start earlier in 2008. In fact, it was supposed to be played in Romanian initially, as you can tell from Nightwrath's translated introduction.
I reused the opening paragraph (and implicitly the planet) in my short shory Bazaar in the Stars, published elsewhere under pseudonym. Not so much the setting, which is entirely different.
To a great degree, the story was made by my players. For example, I decided that Mega has a libertarian government, but it was them who determined the (obvious in retrospect) consequences. I applied that lesson to great effect in later roleplays.
That said, I had in mind a tech base with a specific flavor, and they surprised me by demanding more generic space opera.
The plot, too, was their work. I had prepared a straightforward treasure hunt, so they could easily fit whatever character they wanted. That went down the drain within a few posts. And you know what? It was awesome!
In case somebody's wondering, the explosion at the restaurant was mostly to break up a scene that was becoming awkward, but there was a plot hook behind it, which ended up wasted.
The background thread remained largely unused, everyone preferring to discuss things inline.