Running Traveller Games

I've tried running a few Traveller games with my current group, and sadly it never really seems to work out well. While part of it is me, I think another part is that Traveller is, in many ways, a lot different than most RPGs.

The obvious differences start with it being a level-less game. Though it is really does have levels - your skill levels. But: you don't start out as a kid off the turnip wagon. You start play usually as a middle-aged person who has already had a full life. You start the game already leveled up.

Which brings up the 2nd point: there is no reward other than credits and surviving. Most games you level up, improving stats or skills. At some point you become basically gods depending on the game, though not all games do it that way obviously. Traveller, no matter how long your character has been in play, can be killed by a laser blast as easily as dying in character generation (which is another major difference!) And yes, there are rules for improvement. But it takes a lot of in-game time! And you can still fail to learn anything new.

And for my group, the nail in the coffin, so to speak, is that space travel in the far future is expensive. Getting a ship is a major expense. While I understand a lot of those rules are designed to force the player into taking risks to just be able to survive, to players used to Star Wars or Star Trek, having to work for an adventure just does not go over well. Add in the mechanics for fuel, jump, and the deliberate "communication at the speed of ships" and it is a SF universe they just don't enjoy. Personally, I have no idea how the economics of the Star Wars or Star Trek universes work: people have spaceships as easily as people have cars now it seems. And unless it is a plot point, never worry about fuel or life support.

I'll admit a large part is on me, and I've tried more rules-light versions where they had benefactors and NPCs to handle all those details. Details I like for a number of reasons, and I can work with that. And I get stressed a good bit beyond my normal levels of stress as Traveller is my favorite RPG (you never forget your first love!) and want them to like it as much as I do. 

I cannot compare our games to my college games. First, 40+ year old memories are always burnished to a high shine, and second. most of us in that group all owned and both refereed and played Traveller. We lived Traveller for those glorious years. And we were in our late teens, early 20s. That is an entirely different gamer than those of us *cough* a bit older now.

Anyway, between a new, high-intensity job and my desire to make them like the game too much, the last game fizzled out. I think I mentioned I may just take a break from running games for a while: still adjusting to a new job, and also very disappointed in myself. To be honest, I feel make a better assistant referee I think: I love creating maps, deck plans, NPCs and the like. But effectively running a game seems like something I am just not doing well. 

However, I know I'll try again anyway. Though I may do the Space:1889 concept instead and so bypass some of those pesky OTU details that they seem to not particularly enjoy. I just love the game too much to give up so easily!

Traveller in a Space:1889 Theme

I have an art book by this guy, Alex Alice, and, while I've never played Space:1889, I think I could at least try a 1-shot using some basic Traveller rules based on the aesthetics of this art. The book is also beautiful.

Alex Alice

Basic premise is very Edger Rice Burroughs: Mars, Venus and the other planets can be visited and have their own biomes. You fly through space via the aether and aether engines.

The way I'd run this, and this is an early idea so I may draft more actual rules later, has the basic stuff as follows:

1. Classic Traveller Book 1 & Supplement 4 careers only. But also limit TL options to TL4 (late 19th/early 20th century analog)
1. Using what I understand the TNE way works: roll 7 times, pick the 6 you want and put in the attribute you want
2. no rolling to get into the career - automatic
3. roll then select table for skills (my normal house rule)
4. failing survival => leave service or die and start over again
2. Ship rules
1. Fuel is not really required - aether engines works very differently and does not require the same space/fuel. So very small relative to the ships
2. life support is still needed - takes a larger percentage of the ship and I'll need to figure out a good amount required per person/per day. 
3. Ships can be made of light metals and glass, and you can tell a lot from the style where it comes from (nationality)
4. Can fly on planets and in space, but not underwater. They will float on top.
5. No external weapons? People get out in bulky space suits and fire weapons? Or turrets / shup guns are available?
6. Speeds
1. max atmospheric
2. max in the aether / between worlds: calculate days for trips to destinations? Different aether engines that do have some correlation between size/mechanics/ship mass. Tiny engines can power gliders and personal flight wings, larger ones for ships to traverse the heavens. Details to be mulled and hopefully written out but may use the same or similar tables from book 2. But will probably work with, other than the moon, something like 1 week to Mars or Venus, +/- days based on engine, 3 weeks to Jupiter, 5 weeks to Saturn, etc. Will have to look at distances again. But I do want to maintain the week trope if I can with some minor adjustment for a better aether engine or engineer.
3. Universe
1. Earth analog, 1890 maybe?
2. Mars as per ERB / art book. Native life includes sentients; Mars Princess is currently on Earth at the Expo (starting point of game?). Dying race?
3. Venus as per ERG / art book, prehistoric environments, no intelligent life
4. Combat
1. always my weak point!
2. armor may work as per a discussion on COTI where the armor level is the number of dice to subtract from damage inflicted which may be interesting:
1. Leather/Synth = Armor 1D
2. Cloth = Armor 2D
3. Combat = Armor 3D (old school plate armor - see image below)
4. Battle Dress = Armor 4D (not in this game)
3. range DMs as per rules with DMs based on range. 8+ to hit

Plate armor (more Alex Alice)

Adventure ideas:

1. At the World Fair they meet a sponsor who requires a small crew for a trip to Mars to fetch something for the Princess
1. all is at it seems, and the crew can meet the last Princess of Mars with her blessings to get the golden seal
2. the sponsor is trying to curry favor with the Princess and Martians and is wanting to retrieve her golden seal from Mars and trade it for favors.
3. The sponsor is working for a rival faction on Earth and want to steal the golden seal and hold it hostage for forcing the Martians to do something
4. The sponsor wants to kill off the Princess' parents for some nefarious reason. The characters may notice that the ship has a few untrusty looking members and more guns than you may expect
5. There is another wanting to retrieve the golden seal and there will be a race to the Red Planet. One of the two is working for the Princess, the other against. Which one are you with?
6. There is nothing to fetch, the Princess is actually sending a message to Mars with the pretense of retrieving the seal. That request is a hidden message to the Martians.
2. A hunter wants to hire the group to go to Venus
1. All is as it seems. Base on one of the several Classic Traveller Hunter adventures
2. All is at it seems, but the hunter does have enemies. Who may be wanting to do their nefarious things. Attempts to sabotage the ship before or during the trip, as well as attempts on the planet itself would be interesting and challenging.
3. The hunter is using this as a pretense to "accidently" kill a rival on Venus. 
4. The hunter is hunting something that is, for reasons, illegal to kill. The players may not find out until sometime on the way there and unable to back out.
5. The hunter is really a spy and wanting to get intel on a foreign power's bases on the planet.
6. The hunter is very inept and kills himself on Venus. What do the players do?

Dolmenwood Session 4: Fog Lake and a Goblin Warren

The group decides to continue to Fog Lake, despite it taking an extra day. But - they could just follow the river down to search for the shrine of St. Wort. Which, as none have any real ranger type skills, was probably faster as it was likely they would get lost. Especially the way we roll. From the Campaign Guide, they meet Duncan Mudmurloe:

A stiff, lanky human man in his mid-thirties, with dry, pallid skin and an anaemic moustache. Dresses in courtly breeches, jacket, and absurdly high, powdered wig, even when toiling besideFogLake. Mudmurloe is the “gentleman’s gentleman” of Jollie Oistace Pollard (p328), and hails from High-Hankle. His duties have, of late, tended more and more to the manufacture of Azoth at Fog Lake, which his master has been consuming and demanding in ever-increasing quantities.

We've determined that Azoth is really just crack as they have to smoke it and experience out of body experiences. But nothing much was going on around the lake, and the manservant of Jollie Oistace Pollard of High Hankle was just cooking his drugs by the lake. Camping that night after a meal of fish cooked over a campfire, the crew gets up, and along with Duncan head downstream. The only thing of note was a very loud owl that Elrod swore was sitting right outside his tent.

It is a nice day, and the river is a pretty easy walk. A but before lunch, though, they see a wagon with what seems to be a dead horse. Getting closer they see that the horse has been mauled, and there are bloody pawprints heading further south. Checking inside, Elrod finds that there are 2 young goblins, Snotnose and Rockbutt. Rockbutt was asking about his parents. Elrod said he was not sure where they were. When asked about the horse, well, I cannot recall now what he said. 

no animals other than plastic ones were harmed in the filming of this scene

Deciding to leave the crack dealer to watch the child goblins, they followed the tracks. Not too far along they came along upon a bloodied female goblin, Starrock. She was the mother and witnessed the father getting torn in half by the hell hounds or whatever they were. She was worried not only about her own children, but the goblin warrens ahead had a creche full of youngsters as well while most of the goblins were hunting for food.

Hurrying ahead, while Starrock hobbled back to her children, our heroes find the gates to the underground goblin warren open. Inside, there were torches, and a fairly large area acting as a foyer. Around the first bend they could smell the fetid odor a cesspit, and using a torch he grabbed off the wall, Elrod looks down. And sees several eyes looking up, glinting red in the torchlight. A battle against giant rats starts, and for a while no one hits anyone, but eventually the rats are vanquished, and despite one rat bite, no one caught some strange rat-born disease.

Moving fuether in, they see a carrion worm attacking a goblin. Friar Moon hurries up to slam the 9' work against the wall - the passage is narrow and only one person a can easily attack at a time. The goblin gets off a final shot, and escapes from the cul-de-sac he was trapped in. While Elrod fails more than once to boost Belle over Brother Moon, Kier starts shooting arrows. Eventually this beast is also slain, and they hurry on. 

The come into the town hall of the warrens and upon a battle scene: goblins are fighting hell hounds, and somewhere along the way a giant weasel got in and was heading to the nursery. Weasels are both opportunistic and like fresh goblin apparently (that, and I found that mini while looking for things to add to the dungeon, and since I had painted it, it showed up). 

Arrows, hammers and torches fly as the battle goes on. In a last try, Elrod's hoof got stepped on when trying to boost Belle again, Brother Moon managed to leap over one large hound and dart into goblin house, trying to draw the creature from the fight. They manage to kill the 3 hounds, but they just disappeared into grey smoke when killed. The last wolf was killed on the bridgeway to the nursery - that is when they saw the tail end of the giant weasel heading to the nursery. Next to them was a goblin shooting arrows, and blocking the entrance at the far end of the narrow passage was the nursemaid holding a small ax. Between Keir's arrows, the ax, and a successful magic spell from Elrod, the weasel was killed at the doorstep of the creche.

Pretty much where we ended the game. But what will happen is that Starrtock and her children get back along with the goblin hunters. There is both sadness and gratitude: while several goblins have been killed, more were saved and the youngsters were saved. I'll let the group decide it we want to roleplay the festivities - I see something like the Ewoks as there is a great cauldron of weasel stew, general celebrations, and perhaps some gifting for the heroes of the warren. And I need to name that goblin village: Geerk Underhill. 

There was also some discussion, and the goblins had never seen these hell hounds before. But they think that perhaps someone in the human town of Hendenburgh may know something of this as they roam the woods even more than the goblins do.

Elrod earned the name Weasel Blaster, Kiera Hound Shooter, Belle Hound Hammer, and Brother Moon Hound Hopper. Goblins have a strange sense of humor. 

I'll also note that the battle map is just a small area of the entire warren: there are caves and passages all over. But as those did not really factor into the session plan (and I only have so much space and so much plastic terrain!) that was the only part covered. 

battle picture with annotations. I added the nursery after I took the picture.

Dolmenwood Prep Part 2

Added a bit more to the map, and digging through my toys miniatures for various ideas. I've also annotated the map with what they will be finding, though I want to make it more immersive - I need to think of the smells, temperature, humidity and whatever sounds they hear. I am also adding baby goblins in a nursery creche that are under threat. The question is: why aren't the goblins doing their part: and I think there will be a lot of dead goblins scattered about maybe? or perhaps most were out on a hunting expedition. I've a few more days to figure that out.

Been taking a few pictures and even had AI adjust one a bit. Hopefully we'll have a good time. 

the hounds approach

oh rats!

annotated work in progress

after AI updated it

original picture

Dolmenwood Game Prep Again

Knowing I can really only prep on the weekend for a while until my brain catches up to my new job & I can adjust to that (give it a couple months but I will get there, I always do) I decided to bring out the toys. I'll also throwing in another OSE adventure I backed a while ago, and it fits into where the party is going. While one of the players has read through the adventure, it is more of a sandbox thing so there are a lot of ways to approach this. They have the Otter quest for the righting of the shrine, and because it was an Otter it is near the river that was pointed out by the Grimalkin Dandy Prisslwhiff, bard. But there are probably several sessions in that adventure, along with the shrine. 

Using the caves stuff, along with the goblin lair, I created a small dungeon. I won't post the reasons why they may go into this yet as they may read this post, but I have a few things I think will make them want 

to. I still need to populate it, though I have several ideas and things I want to test out. 

I'll probably gather the minis this week for what I need so that everything is in 1 place and easy to find. I am at least getting that organized! I even have a "box of minis I may need for this session" that also houses the character minis. It will get populated this week (twirls evil mustache). 

The AI version

original picture

I've also stopping running the Traveller game - with the new job it was just too much for me to handle. And I feel I was not doing a good job running the game. While it is my favorite RPG, I was apparently more stressed running it according to the players. Mostly because it is my favorite and I want people to have a good time, I worry more than other games I run. I was having fun but had too much going on to give it the attention it needs. Which is why I found an adventure for the Dolmenwood / OSE game that should give me a bit of structure and it is not all from my head.

I think part of it is mechanics. I am a huge fan of detailed mechanics. and Traveller (especially T5!) has some detailed mechanics for a lot of things. I have some interesting rules I wanted to try for the older OSE game I was running so the Druid could craft things. The players just don't want to do that sort of thing - too complicated and just wants GM fiat. More of a narrative style of play where the GM just does things is the approach this group uses the most. Which is good, but I like rule and things. Probably why I am a decent developer as that is all rules based. So that contrast between my preference for rules-based games vs narrative styled games is where some of my stress comes from as I need to relax how I want to run things to accommodate them. Which I've been doing (the NPCs handle all the details of ship stuff for the most part) but I feel that we're missing part of what makes Traveller my favorite game. Being my first RPG is also part of that!

Anyway, putting the Traveller game back on a shelf sadly, and will just run the monthly Dolmenwood game and be a player in the Tuesday night games for a few months at least, maybe longer.

Brain Dead

Not exactly, but starting a new job at a large international company is a LOT different than all the jobs I've had the last 40 years. I am used to pretty much jumping in and start figuring things out in the first couple of days. Now I have a month of training and onboarding. And to be honest, it is still very confusing to me. I almost quit after the 1st day - I could be quietly retired and not have to worry about this! 

Acclimating to a new job takes a heavy mental and emotional toll on me. And so my last gaming session we just yakked. I let everyone know ahead of time that I was overburdened with all the changes as well as being short 1 player, and by the end of that talk we had moved to let someone else lead a game for a while. I still have a few things I want to accomplish in the Kinunir game, so I do plan on getting back to it. But right now, after work I am just exhausted. And until I make that transition that is the state I am in. I do not make transitions easily!

But there is a bright side to this: I can now see how a very high law world that is full of rules would work! It reminds me a bit of the Exit Visa/Stranded on Arden adventure. Adventures in bureaucracy which does not appeal to a lot of players! Think the version in the magazine I have actually has a flow chart. 

Now for an idea of a better way to handle the same situation. 'As you leave the port warden's office, a clerk at the counter catches your eye." At this point, roil for his reaction to the crew. It's a 6, unreceptive, but he still looks like he might be able to help, Since the players don" know what skills might come into play, allow the entire group to approach, but single out one player in the crew to talk; he might not have the best skill level for the task, but he should have some appropriate skill level. In this case, either the Captain (character 1) or the Supervisor (character 6) should be told to talk to the clerk. 

"Ok, I'm trying to engage the man in conversation." says the Supervisor. 

"He'll talk, but seems brusque." Encourage the players to figure out the procedure themselves. "He seems kind of officious." 

"Maybe we could slip him some cash?" interjects the merchant 3rd Officer (he has bribery skill). 

"Do you want to try that?" Let the character make the decision while giving enough data to allow a reasonable response. One without bribery skill should be rebuffed, while one with skill might be told, "He's not acting friendly enough to be bribable at the moment." 

If necessary, push the players to ask the official if he can help. Note, if necessary, who does the asking, and use that player's skills to modify the die roll. Roll the dice secretly, but let the players know they are being rolled. The result is 5, with enough DMs to allow the clerk to give some help. The referee should say, "The clerk thinks maybe you should make an appointment to see the Customs Inspector in Building 134 tomorrow. He might be able to help." There is a basic scheme to the types of skills which will be useful to the players as they deal with the various officials. It may prove useful to mention to the players, as the adventure proceeds, some of the following facts, perhaps as each comes up. If they can remember these facts, they can better determine which of their number should deal with various types officials. 

A. Clerks are affected by Administration skill. 

B. Supervisors are affected by Liaison skill. 

C. Customs workers are affected by Liaison skill. 

D, Immigration workers are affected by Streetwise skill. 

E. Security workers are affected by Liaison skill. 

Early in the adventure, these details may not make any impression, but later on, the players may be able to understand that some of their number are better suited to some situations, even if they do not know all of the possible skills which could affect the encounter.

Anyway, mostly a filler post as my brain is full of trying to understand far too many new terms, meet too many new people, and get frustrated by bureaucracy!

June Bug is becoming my therapy cat!

Kinunir Session 5: Into the Dome

Our intrepid group of 4 was down to 2 last session for reasons. Deciding the 2 would stay in the research pinnace while Jake and Moses entered the dome.

Moses tried to communicate with Professor Plutonis and his lovely assistant, Yvonne. Who for some reason I just picture as the character from Star Trek: Voyager's Proton holodeck series:

Yvonne

Plutonis was glad to hear from his comms: while he and Yvonne had been imprisoned for the last 2 weeks or so, and he had lost weight due to the bland seafood diet, he was okay. But his Mightiness was still debating whether to flush them out the nearest waterlock, or see if he could extract information and technology from them. Plutonis said they were on the same level as the sub but was not sure how far away. From a technical note: the Oollarians did not recognize the comm-dots, and those things have an amazing battery life!

Sinking the pinnace to what seemed to be the level of the moonpool, Jake and Moses get into the gel suits and get loaded with 2 spare gel suits and their weapons. It was decided that being submerged would not hurt the gauss rifle and things that could get damaged were placed in the convenient dry bags that Professor Cosmosis had brought along. He of such foresight. The might of the infinite ship's locker perhaps. 

outside the moonpool. The sub is the escape pod.

Swimming across the 10 or 20 meters, they got into the moonpool. There was a ledge and ladder going up to the double sea doors. The sub mas amber and red lights and is badly damaged.  After changing back into their armor (though not specifically mentioned I think leaving the gel suits either on the shelf or in the sub?), they ease their way past the doors. Rolling on my tables from the previous post, there were a few Greenies way down at the end of hall. Fortunately, the 2 that saw them, while they were His Mightiness' guards and police, were part of a nascent freedom league. They closed the doors behind them, and one trotted towards our two suspicious heroes. Keeping his arms well away from his large (and single shot) sidearm, he whispers that the prisoners are 3 sections away, past two pumping stations. He has to whisper pretty loudly as this is one of the engineering levels, and the pumps make a lot of noise. The guard backs up, and Jake and Moses start moving through the various sections towards the prison area.

In the middle of one of the pumping stations, they meet Jason and Thriss. The two agree to lead the characters to the jail. Jake gives Thriss his taser. Who immediately pulls a Luke Skywalker and stares down into the needles. Jake quietly pulls it back and explains how it gets used. Moving to the prison section, which according to Plutonis has not been fully guarded the last week or so after the initial surprise of illegal aliens wore off. His Mightiness or one of his counselors was concerned with spreading information about the rest of the universe and wanted to minimize contact with the professor and his assistant. 

Opening the hatch to the prison section, Thriss tries to shoot the guard with the taser. Rolling a 3, and with his -3 for an unfamiliar weapon, they were lucky he did not shoot himself! Rolling out of the way as the guard got up, drawing his gun, Thriss did not feel like a hero. Moses shot him in the back with a tranq shot, putting the guard to sleep. Grabbing the keys, they sent up and found Plutonis and Yvonne in adjacent cells. Putting the sleeping guard in there, they started to retrace their steps back to the moonpool. 

Unfortunately, I keep rolling 3s on the encounter table, and the tangle with 5 more Greenies. As they were pulling out pistols to shoot, Moses decided enough was enough and the gauss rifle came out to play. While our group was shot at, the players are fortunate the dice gods hate me even as a referee, and not a single shot landed (one roll was even snake eyes). Moses took down two of them, and I think Jake did as well. Unfortunately, gauss needles, while making hamburger of the guards, also ruptured the pump tanks behind the guards. Water was gushing out like a fire hose. Jason started to worry as automatic locks would quarantine each section, so they had to hurry to the next section. They got out as the water was above their ankles and rising. 

Thriss really wanted to leave Oollar, and said that his life expectancy as a sea miner is measured in a few years. Jason's wife had been killed by the dictator in one of the purges. He wanted outsiders to help arm the resistance but had no idea what Oollar could trade for. This discussion went on as everyone got into their gel suits. Thriss got into his suit, fortunately stored in the locker next to the moonpool. Without an air hose he ony had a couple minutes of air, but Jake and Moses maneuvered him to the air lock of the research sub. 

Thriss' diving suit.

And that is where we left the session. I'll need to fluff out the various NPCs, Plutonis, Yvonne and Thriss, a bit more, and poke around for some images other than Yvonne's above. Still no idea why that is how or why that was the image I had of her. Oh well - my brain works in strange ways!

Work update

The computer equipment shows up tomorrow, and I need to finish cleaning off that section of my desk to get it set up. The paints and minis will just have to be moved to the 3rd section only instead of being spread out. And of course, I have my normal jitters and nervousness about a new position. I've been that way since junior high school: the strangest and most uncomfortable dreams so I don't sleep well. Especially as I am not entirely (or even partially!) sure of what the expectations of this position are. Despite 73 items so far in the onboarding (all bureaucracy stuff), the software onboarding (source control trouble tickets, wikis and all the stuff around being a developer on a team) is yet to happen. So - I am nervous. Even after doing this stuff for 40 years, I still question myself. Which I think is a lot better than when I was being an arrogant a-hole and thinking I knew everything!

But: this may mean I don't get as far as I'd like in this game. I do want to get them to the asteroid belt, so that the player who dropped out can at least have his character check his claim. Perhaps joined by the engineer, who knows. But I may get caught up with work for a bit and need to concentrate on that more. We'll just see how that goes.