Traveller

Day 6: Classic Traveller Army (died in chargen!)

Day 14: Space:1999 Pilot (via Traveller)

Day 13: Traveller Hitman

Day 16: Awakened Cave Locust

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Character Challenge 15: Awakened Cave Locust

I do seem to pick up odd things (and rarely use them but hey, I am trying!). Just got the PDF to OSR Advanced Options and it has some interesting ideas. One being the Awakened Cave Locust. Which I can see as being related to the Reach of the Roach God (which is a really beautiful book, and I hope I can run something using it at some point). And so decided I need a walking Cave Locust. With a waistcoat apparently.

Gifted sentience and an upright stance by stray magical energies — or, on occasion, deliberate enchantments — awakened cave locusts are rare, yet plentiful enough that they have achieved a self-sustaining population.
They are most often found in the company of others of their kind, either awakened or normal, but are occasionally found in the cities of humanity, usually in dimly lit cellars, alleys choked with refuse, or other places that rarely see the light of day.

Lelelithi (and one cannot tell if it is a male or female but does wear traditional male clothes) is an Awakened Cave Locust. Short at just under 4 feet tall, Lelelithi wears natty clothes, and sports a walking stick as they move around the city. Not comfortable in daylight, they are usually seen in the evening and night hours, sipping a sweet drink and watching the tavern folk from a stool at the end of the bar. Their quick movements bely a bit of nervousness around so many larger folk, but they cannot help themselves. They want to see what the greater world has to offer outside the caves of their youth.

Lelelithi speaks Common with a lot more clicks than expected, as well as their own native language. They have been hired as a scribe, and more than once as a hireling to accompany adventurers in the dungeon delves. Their ability to blend into cave walls, and speed and agility make Lelelithi an admirable scout. Though when adventuring, the fancy clothes stay at home so that they can fly for short distances.

Quiet, easily startled, and prone to getting sidetracked in urban areas with clothing stores. Lelelithi takes some getting used to. They do not approach strangers and tend to appear to look down when confronted with people they do not know. But with compound eyes it is difficult to tell where they are looking. Their home is in the cellar of a mostly abandoned building where they live with a score of siblings and cousins. The Goblins are not happy as the Awakened Cave Locusts have taken several of the grimier jobs that Goblins tend to have in urban areas.

AI - could not find a nattily dressed locust

Character Challenge

Day 6: Classic Traveller Army (died in chargen!)

Day 14: Space:1999 Pilot (via Traveller)

Day 13: Traveller Hitman

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Character Challenge 14: Space:1999

Well, not quite Space:1999. I did pre-order the RPG way back and expect it to show up eventually. And I did do a post in how Traveller could work for that game (and it really could very easily, as well as UFO). And as there is a Swift ship in the series, I just need a ship's boat pilot for that to have my challenge in a challenge met!

Rolling some dice we get 485433. Deciding that I really want someone a bit sturdier, trying again I get 8457C9. Which I'm going to re-arrange to 8C5749 (swapped DEX and INT, which I normally don't do but it is my NPC).

RosAnne Kairo grew up on Zila in the Aramis subsector, RosAnne applied to the Naval Academy off-world. While rejected, she was accepted into the Imperial Navy. Zila is actually an Amber-zoned world - a Puzzle system - and the Imperial Naval Base at Aramis is always interested in that world. So, when an aspiring native applied, they pulled some levers to get her into the Imperial Navy to watch and see.

Term 1 (short term, 3 years)

Year 1: Basic training in crew: Liason-1, Electronic-1 RosAnne learned the Naval etiquette and how to deal with people that we not from Zila. She also showed an interest in electronics, receiving more than one burn from soldering systems.

Year 2: Siege. Getting a Purple Heart (she rolled the survival roll exactly!), Spacehand Recruit was promoted to Spacehand Apprentice. She worked on her Cutlass-1 skill to hopefully prevent getting wounded in her next combat mission.

Year 3: Training. Apparently, the Imperial rotates high stress terms with lower stress ones at times. While promoted to E-3, Able Spacehand, she does not learn much else this final year of her first term.

Able Spacehand Kairo decides to reenlist, and the Navy is only too happy to oblige (rolled an 11, almost a mandatory reenlistment!)

Term 2

Year 1: Shore Duty! While she makes another promotion to E4, Petty Officer 3rd Class (and only by dint of that SOC 9), she again does not pick up any skills.

Year 2: More training. She is promoted yet again to E5, Petty Officer 2nd Class, and gets her rating on Ships Boat-1, learning to fly shuttles and even some longer-range boats such as the Swift.

Year 3: Shore Duty. Not promoted, but she does pick up Forward Observer-1.

Year 4: Strike! Surviving easily, she was a practicing medic in this action. While not promoted again, she gained Medical-1 training and certification.

A bit disappointed by the lack of promotions, RosAnne is disillusioned by her Naval career and decides to retire to seek other opportunities. Perhaps on that moon base that monitors the radioactive dump site on the far side...

RosAnne Kairo, Petty Officer 2nd Class, Imperial Navy

8C5749, age 26, 2 terms Navy, Purple Heart, 2 combat ribbons

Ship's Boat-1, Liason-1, Electronic-1, Cutlass-1, Medical-1, Forward Observer-1

A short, dark-haired woman who speaks Anglic with a hard-to-place accent, RosAnne comes from Zila, a world with a mystery. After spending 2 terms in the Imperial Navy, she is now a Swift pilot on the moon, ferrying passengers to various points in the system.

Pinterest, no credit

Not Space:1999

I am looking forward to getting that RPG. And even plan on running a game with my Monday group (which has lost 2 players. Which is sort of normal for those 2: 1 almost never finishes playing or running games, the other tends to go AWOL for a few weeks then comes back). I enjoy looking through the tech manual enough. Though I am having to go through season 2 slowly: it is really painful to watch. And while we probably won't play face to face, I did end up getting some miniatures from a seller on Etsy that are Space:1999. And I have this ship that is close to an Eagle...

https://www.0-hr.com/

Character Challenge

Day 6: Classic Traveller Army (died in chargen!)

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/WyPN2

Day 13: Traveller Hitman

Monday, January 13, 2025

Character Challenge 13: Traveller Hitman

Using Crime In Clement Sector, and starting rolling up characteristics and having a picture that looked interesting, I present Johnny "Swift" D'Angelo. Nicknamed Swift for the speed of his draw.

Coming from the wrong side of the tracks more or less by choice, Johnny grew up on Angohekh (hit random page until a world showed up), a poor world where most grow up hungry. Though he got through basic education, Johnny knew he'd never have a corporate sort of job. Graduation basic education, he fell into a small gang, and though his first kill was more an accident and due to nervousness, he realized his trigger finger may be his way off this world.

The first few years were rough and hard on him: barely surviving one gang way, he learned Stealth-1, Gun Combat (Pistol)-1. He was also tasked with planting a bomb in the rival boss' car, which he successfully did, gaining Explosives-1. But soon after that, he got sloppy: he killed an innocent person, and his hit killed the boss of his gang. Now wanted for murder by the police, and the new boss wanting to kill Johnny, he has fled Angokeh with little more than a pair of guns and Cr1000. Which is not going to take him far.

Adventure hooks

You may see Johnny hanging out at the 'port's food court, bumming food or just hanging out. Jovial looking, but with a glint of cruelty in his eyes, rumor has it he is available for dirty work. He gets the occasional part-time job but never lasts long as he is often insolent and has a cruel streak. But he has used up any credit for transport off the world he is on, so starting to get desperate for a job.

He can also be a thug for hire the players meet when preforming their duties, hired to scare off someone.

Johnny "Swift" D'Angelo, Hit Man

7A5678, age 22, 1 term

Gun Combat (Pistol)-1, Explosives-1, Stealth-1

2 pistols

Character Challenge

Day 6: Classic Traveller Army (died in chargen!)

Sunday, January 12, 2025

Character Challenge 12: Half-Orc Fighter

Rolled 3d6 6 times, and strength was pretty good at 15. Decided I've not done an OSE fighter as I keep doing odd-ball classes lately. So back to the basics but decided a half-Orc would be good and bump the strength up even more. And it is nice to just have a tank in there: sometimes you just want to hit things. And Nag just wants to hit things.

Nag's human mother did not live long past his birth: his father had taken her in a raid along the border and the tribe was surprised that he kept her. The tribe, who roamed the Kalor Desert, was a small tribe that was getting smaller through the generations. Zilg, Nag's father, thought any new births were better than none. Nag was born a fighter, and his mother, already frail from carrying a baby a bit too large, died after seeing him for just a moment.

Nag grew up in the harsh desert, honing his fighting skills against the few peers he had. While they often made fun of him, it was rarely done more than once as Nag was a bit stronger than most and would fight until he had to be pulled off the other. One fight finally went on too long, and Nag killed his tormentor. The Swift Kill tribe (sounds a bit harsher in Orc: rqay xaugh) passed the ruling that he was to be banned from the tribe. Already an able fighter, he headed south, a lone half-Orc. He stumbled on Lurbek's and learned Common there, but decided to move on and has been a mercenary for hire ever since. Now part of the Black Gryphon mercenaries, he fights alongside a cadre of fighters. Though he sometimes gets hired out for smaller duties, such as the time he was a bodyguard for Lord Twigg when visiting the border.

Almoat as wide as he is tall, Nag is a quiet Orc when not in battle. Quick to raise his fist should anyone say anything to impugn his character, the mercenary group has learned to say little about his mixed heritage or ask about his past. He speaks rarely and has a strong accent - Common is a bit difficult with his tusks. He is oddly cavalier about his mother, never knowing her and blaming her for his status as a half-Orc.

Character Challenge

Day 6: Classic Traveller Army (died in chargen!)

Saturday, January 11, 2025

Character Challenge 11: War for the Wasteland Nuke Child

In a recent spelunking I found War for the Wasteland. No idea why I have this other than I like the Bloat Games, but I really don't like post-apocalyptic games or movies. I find them far too depressing though my group enjoys them and says the characters are looking for that bit of good. All I see is how horrible people can be, and I see enough of that in real life. And I also see the good side, but I think I worry that I'd not be a good person when faced with survival versus being good. Or just out and out get killed as I have zero survival skills - I write software for a living! Why I also play characters with little to no responsibilities: I have far too many responsibilities and play to get away from that sort of thing. But as always, I digress. And as I mentioned this in passing, the group said they do want to play so I'll have to re-read the rules and see if I can run a game. Fortunately, it is pretty rules light.

Setting

It’s been almost 400 years since Earth endured its first Nuclear War. America, once looked up to as the world’s leading country with its rich economy and vast globe-spanning military might, suffered the brunt of the onslaught of nuclear missile attacks, turning the empire into smoldering, nrecognizable wasteland of its former glory.
In the wake of this Nuclear War and the Nuclear Winter that followed, humanity somehow found a way to survive through these dark times. Everyday people went underground in caves and caverns to avoid the radiation. They banded together forming small communities, sharing skills, working toward goals of survival. Each of these clusters of people, thought they were the last survivors of human race, but they were wrong.
In pre-war built underground Bunkers, all across the United States, hundreds of thousands of military personal, politicians, scientists, mechanics, computer & robotics experts, engineers, and the ultra-wealthy and elite, road out the War and Winter, in relative comfort and safety. During which time they established the “New American Allegiance”, a new world power who’s mission it became to set about rebuilding civilization, and specifically, America back to its former glory, making it safe for all mankind, and ensuring no other world powers or other threats rose to challenge them.
And lastly, there were those who suffered the most, the surface dwellers, now called Nuke Children. They were those who stayed above ground, whose bodies were burned and ravaged by radiation and tortured by the freezing temperatures of Nuclear Winter. Over time, their bodies were altered, down to the molecular level. Some disfigured and mutated, into something unrecognizable as human. While others developed Psyched or Magical abilities.

Advice

And I like the game advice, which should be common across various games. I always let players try anything even if not on their character sheets. The odds may be low, but you never know.

PLAYER: You character, once created, will have some cool and unique features, however, it is important to real you’re not bound by your character sheet. Simply because you do not have a Pilot Hovercraftskill, does not mean you can’t attempt to pilot one. You would just roll an unskilled, d6, check. Never limited your imagination by the few features on your character sheet. It’s a whole big crazy imaginary world. Feel free to go big. Play cinematic.
GM: Describe characters in terms of behaviors, risks, and obstacles, not skill dice. Lead the group in setting lines not to cross in play. Fast-forward, pause, or rewind/redo for pacing and safety; invite players to do likewise. Present dilemmas you don’t know how to solve. Move spotlight to give all time to shine.

Characters

Rolling on the random table I get a Nuke Child, who is passable with some disguise. Rory Toten grew up outside the remains of New York. Managing to survive with the help of his clan, his abilities have helped the family. Sporting a tail, silver eyes and what looks to be bone armor on his torso. Rolling on the mutant psychic table, he has 2 skills at the d8 level (roll 1 d8, where 1-2 = catastrophic failure, 3-4 = setback, 5+ = success. So the higher the skill die the more likely you are to succeed): manipulate reality for a brief time, and element manipulation. Often anxious, he carries a heirloom letter that actually predates the war. One of his ancestors had written a love letter to her future husband, and somehow through the generations that has accumulated more meaning for the Toten family. Unfortunately, he cannot read, nor does he know it is not really his ancestor but his parents, and their parents before them, believed it was.

He also carries a bolt thrower and wears no armor but his natural partial exo-skeleton can offer some protection.

AI - asked for a silver-eyed mutant with a tail in an apocalyptic setting

Character Challenge

Day 6: Classic Traveller Army (died in chargen!)