Strange New Worlds Part 9: Crew: Chief Scientist Dr Rylan Wylder

Deciding to roll up some characters, and the first one I rolled had some amazing stats. Highlight being the education 12 / C. While I was going to try & get to the captains of the 4 ships, we will also need a lead scientist. And I continued my lucky rolls except for 1 aging roll in the 6th term. I did not muster him out as he was a professor at Montca University, teaching astro-physics and stellar system evolution. And yes, in Classic Traveller the scientist really does not get into that level of detail. But he did end up with Navigation and Computers so I figure he can create all sorts of interesting computer simulations. That is the best part about Classic Traveller: the skills are pretty broad so can be open to all sorts of interpretations. And easy to read between the lines on the various dice rolls. 

Pinterest, not credited

Dr. Rylan Wylder, Professor of Astrophysics at Montca University and Lead Scientist of the Johon 3 Exploratory Expedition

87A8D8 Scientist, 6 Terms, age 42

Computer-2, Navigation-1, Jack of Trade-1, Medical-1, Carousing-1, Gravatics-1, Admin-1, Electronic-1, Survival-1, Leader-1

Raised on Montca, the only child of two scientists, Rylan was fully immersed in the scholastic world his whole life. A calm child without the brilliance of his parents, he still managed to get through college earlier than many of his peers through sheer dedication and continual parental pressure. 

Continuing to teach, first as a teacher's assistant, then his own classes, Rylan continued to soak up knowledge and taught it to others. 
Term 1 Deciding he liked space, he started to specialize in navigation but also picked up the ability to "Macgyver" things when he did not have everything he needed. He also started to work harder with computers, thinking that via various models he could learn more. Navigation, JoT, Computer

Term 2 Rylan took several first aid classes after his father took a fall, and Rylan and his mother helped the convalescing man back to health. These were also his party years - teaching his own class, yet still young enough to feel attuned to his students, Rylan perhaps did not always take teaching as seriously as he should have but nonetheless continued on at Montca University.Medical, Carousing

Term 3 Stellar evolution may have some impacts based on gravity, and Rylan studied gravatics as part of his thesis. He also picked up administration as he wended his ways through the doctorate program while teaching full time as well.Gravatics, Admin

Term 4 He sharpened his jack of trades by working harder in electronics, creating some of his own tools and scanning equipment. He started testing this in the mountains and picked up a backpacking hobby and learning to live off the land. He was becoming more focused as he got older. Electronics, Survival

Term 5 Taking grad students hiking, he picked up the leadership skill, and by more closely working with his students and more focused in general, he felt he was even getting a bit smarter. +1 Int, Leader

Term 6 Almost a decade of hiking took its toll on his knees, and Rylan decided to focus more on the lab. His computer skills grew and he gained several certifications in computer systems. His classes were well liked by the general student population, and it was around this time that Juila, a former student of his, reached out to see if he would like to be the chief scientist of the Johon Expedition, to prove some of hypothesis on system evolutions. Computer, +1 EDU

He will be on the main ship, in charge of all the other scientists that are going along. Eventually I'll have to have an org chart!

Org chart v 0.1

Strange New Worlds Part 8: Humboldt Class Tanker

The rules for creating ships in classic Traveller, notwithstanding having a tanker classification, have a hard time working up the stats for a tanker ship. So I'll just do the traditional thing and make up stuff. As most of it won't really matter in a game, especially a solo game!

0-Hr Humboldt Class

The registered tonnage is just over 55,000 tons, which is about 11,000 displacement tons. Of that, the majority are the huge tanks. I'm rounding generously here to make the main ship just 3000 tons, and the tanks 6,000 tons (1,300 each in terms of actual internal and usable tonnage, but 200 additional tons for various mechanical clamps, hoses and other engineering things). That leaves 2000 tons which I am also allocating to the drives and internal tankage not really shown on the maps. It will have jump 2, maneuver 2 and power plant 2. And a 100-ton cargo bay. The crew is scaled for a 2000-ton ship and using Book 2 crew requirements instead of Book 5 as we do NOT need an 11-member command staff!

Since B2 only goes to 1000 tons, we still have to use B5. And scaling the drives for a 11K ton ship at TL 12:

• Jump: 330
• Maneuver: 550
• Power: 330
• Total Engineering: 1,210 tons

Which means 35 engineers (1 per 35 tons!). Book 5 though says 1 per 100 tons, so 12 engineers is a lot better. And re-reading the command structure - I think the High Guard Shipbuilder has a small issue as it is 5 command personnel per 10K, so we need 5 command personnel if this were a military ship. Which it is not.

Our crew for this ship will be:

• Captain (will also be chief navigator or pilot?)
• 2 Pilots (chief pilot, boat pilot though both will be able to pilot either ship)
• 1 Navigator
• 1 Medic
• 12 Engineers
• Total: 17

Though only the captain and chief pilot get their own staterooms - everyone else is in one of two bunk rooms. And it has always struck me as odd that the medic is one of the lowest paid members of the crew. But I suppose if no one ever gets hurt, the medic has nothing to do. And it only requires medic-1 as a minimum, and a medic 3 (technically a doctor at that point) gets Cr2400/month (base Cr2000 + 10%/level). But still - doctors are apparently cheap in the Traveller universe!

everyone gets a bunk! There are 18 beds, so we actually have 1 spare bunk

I'll not worry about a ship card or anything like that. At some point we may need it, but I figure the tanker is going to mostly hang back, and using the riders, that do have fuel scoops, to get wilderness fuel and ferry it over. The tanker will have fuel purifiers, but no scoops as it is not streamlined. Though interestingly the ship can land vertically or horizontally: the main decks gimbal about which is an interesting idea! And the maps indicate how you get from deck to deck for either rotation. Though the cargo deck does NOT rotate, so that could be messy and dangerous! Maybe it should have scoops as well, or at least some mechanisms for wilderness refueling. I am open to suggestions!

Stange New Worlds 1, Part 7: Trinity Class Rider

The Trinity class ship has 2 large, 1500 tom riders known as Alpha and Beta. Although I'll expect the crews may have their own names eventually. I've also set the ships to have 120 days' worth of fuel as they also act as a fuel source for the main ship. Again, the drop pod lower deck is now a fuel deck, as are the rearmost hanger decks. 

Again, per the ancient Highguard Shipyards we have a brief card:

One thing 0-Hr does not give enough of (other than fuel tanks for a Traveller game!) is sufficient staterooms. I think he is using 4 bunks per stateroom, so quadruple occupancy. Regardless, it is again close enough. With just about half the crew required at 27 people, we still have some scientists and such as these two craft are going to be used to make a much greater sensor net. Three ships with pretty large computer / sensor systems that can gang the sensors together from a distance of a few light seconds should give a pretty good resolution. I also gave the ship a maneuver 4 engine and a backup engine. And these are a bit more heavily armed than the main ship (sort of like how the Battletender would hang back so not have much in the way of weapons. At least in theory?).  Interestingly, I guess the 1500 ton ship needs the same command structure:

• 11 command
• 9 engineers
• 3 flight crew
• 6 services
• 3 ship troops
• 2 gunners
• 3 scientists

And as per the main ship, we'll add more sensors:

• Life Scanner (TL C) capable of detecting and differentiating life forms. MCr 2.
• Mineral Detection suite, MCr 5
• Laboratory (16 tons for 3 scientists) MCr 6 (the CIC is now a lab)
• Medical bay (and there is one on the ship plans, though it says lab and now the medbay)

As this ship does not have a CIC to convert to a lab, the two riders converted the classrooms into the lab space needed. 

The command structure is the same as the main ship:

• Commanding Officer
• Executive Officer
• 2 Navigators
• Medical Officer
• Communications Officer
• 3 Pilots
• Science Office
• Engineering

The 2 rider commanders are below the rank of the main ship, but above all the others in command. I've no idea how the real world works, but for my game this is good enough. 

I'll have to generate the 3 commanding officers at least (well, the 4th as well as we still need to get the tanker support ship done. Which is more than 50% fuel tank - a real Traveller ship!

One of the interesting aspects of these ships is that when docked, they have access to each other. And with the riders also giving jump fuel, this also includes high volume fuel transfers as well. However, as shown on the maps, while it looks good, the actual physical model there is a large gap, so there must be something like an extendable tube or something. But he is good about putting in a lot of bathrooms, medical and exercise areas!

Zombicide at a Retro Station

I played a solo game on the retro station map from 0Hr. The map lends itself to zones pretty easily. However, there are a few twists: stairs and a small single person elevator. For the stairs, it works like just another zone, so going from deck 3 to 4 takes 2 actions, 1 for the stairs and one for the deck 3. The elevator I was going to try and say it was soundproof, so the xenos would not attack you and you could bypass a level with them. However, it did not come up in my short game. Where I got killed.

I also had 5 objectives, 2 of which would open up a new spawn point. Sadly, the 1st I flipped opened a new spawn zone. All the spawn zones were are the outside airlocks. Those aliens have spaceships!

Anyway, using a different sort of map brings in different ways of playing. And I may as well use those maps for something! I even used a 3D printed ship from the Starshipwright, who sadly stopped doing that a while ago. But I've a box of them that are useful for props if I ever get back to face to face gaming. Or in this case, marking the exit shuttle.

I was of course killed. But a solo play means I can only deal with about 4 characters. Hopefully I'll retry this with my friend - he was sick this weekend so it was just me.

The end is near!

where did the mold abomination come from?!

uh-oh

a 1 person lift

we never made it to the escape shuttle

Strange New Worlds 1 - Juila Johon

Figuring I could try & roll up our main character and financier; here is an initial draft. And I'll even tie it to the Kinunir game just for fun. Even if we never get back to it. 

Juila Johon was born on Johon (D'arlee Subsector 0414 C59165A-7), an Amber zone world of the Imperium. A dusty world with barely half a G of gravity, Johon is run by a cohort of various tech guilds, most of which are inimical to the Imperium. This resulted in a long-standing Amber zone for the world as, though technically an Imperial world, off-worlders from the Imperium have been mobbed before. Being the great-great-great granddaughter of Baroness Felicia D’Arlee Johon (who originally discovered and shamelessly named it after her family) and part of the Space Mining Guild, Juila's family had a fairly large fortune and decided to emigrate when she was young. The planet's fortunes were falling after years of being flagged an Amber zone. Moving 13 parsecs away and leaving the Imperium, they ended up on Montca. They buy a controlling interest in the Swift Rock Group, an asteroid mining consortium that operates mostly in the Helfom belt though it does have resources in the Xyman system as well.

Knowing that doingis the best way of learning, the Johon's send Juila to the Swift Rock Group. 

Dan Morton (if Pinterest tagged it correctly!) Just liked the style.

Juila Johon 86988B, Belter

4 Terms active service

Computer-2, Pilot (Small Craft-1), Comms-1, Sensors-1, Broker-1, Gun Combat (Pistol-1), Survival-1, JoT-1

Her first term she was safely ensconced in research, learning basic technical information where she learned Zero_G, Computers and Comms. She was promoted to rank 1 and also became friends with the local Space Patrol head, Luci Patriccia. 

Her next term she hit the rocks, so to speak, and did a few years as a prospector. Again, she received a promotion, and learned several new skills: Survival, Gun Combat (Pistol-1), Medical and Prospecting. She leaned heavily into the practical experience and learned to really enjoy being out amongst the stars and drifting rocks. It was during this period that thoughts went back to her great-great, and she started to think about exploring more than just a planetoid belt. There were unexplored worlds beyond the League and Imperium. 

Trying her hand at actual mining in her third term, she was promoted to Supervisor. Bringing back ore, actual mining taught her Broker, Vacc Suit and Jack of All Trades. She also took advanced computer training for Computer-2. 

Deciding to try her hand at prospecting again, she barely survived an explosive decompression on her ship. While no one was hurt, Juila suffered a concussion and has had a minor ringing in her ears ever since that incident. Regardless, she did not get promoted this term. She did pick up Pilot (Small Craft) and Sensors. But she also decided after that last incident to retire from the actual operations of Swift Rock Group and into a more managerial position. 

Then next several years passed by, but the idle thoughts from her first prospecting term kept surfacing. And when Luci talked about the canceled Trinity Project, Juila knew that this was an opportunity. 

Trinity Exploration Group

Juila's parents, now retired from most things, helped her set up the TEG. With their contacts in the Space Patrol and Montca Shipyards, they bought the Trinity Class ship, re-christened to Trinity's Star and started the lengthy process of adding the internal systems. Montca University is one of the many minor shareholders in this endeavor, along with the Space Patrol, Montca Shipyards and the Swift Rock Group. It took 4 more years, with Montca U sending along a couple of scientists, and the Space Patrol allowed the former chief engineer of the Trinity Project to do an early retirement and become the Chief Engineer of the Star. 

And enough for 1 post: will expand the group, crew and all that in an upcoming post. Same blog time, same blog channel!

Stange New Worlds 1, Part 5: Trinity Class Ships

The Trinity class ships in the 0Hr universe:

Project Trinity was a government-funded undertaking to spearhead the production of a new generation of ships for the Nexan Colonies. These are planets founded a few decades ago by the Terra Novan Theocracy and are officially known as the Archdioces of Syros. 

These ships are meant for solo duties on the edge of, and beyond, civilized space. Though capable of fighting, that is not their primary purpose. They are well equipped for exploration and scientific missions as well. These are key ships of the Nexan armada that will be vital in mapping out the future of the Archdiocese, and humanity as a whole.

That last paragraph (and I removed several intervening paragraphs) matches the intent for this exploration.

In MTU:

The Trinity Class ship was intended as a long-range Space Patrol vessel, capable of handling much larger pirate or invading forces via the 3 vectored attack. While computer simulations showed a lot of promise, the ship was over-budget and finally stopped being built as being far too expensive when smaller and more nimble ships could do the same for less. While hull construction for all three ships was completed, and drives were installed, the computer system and much of the habitable interior were not completed. Juila Johon, seeing potential in this ship for exploration beyond the edge of the League and even Imperial space, managed to purchase the trio for a fraction of the cost. The Space Patrol was glad of the transfer. It took several years and a coalition of the League government, Montca Shipyards, Montca University and a large portion of Juila's fortune to finally outfit this ship.

So: an almost-mothballed ship and brought into a mix of public/private ownership. Bad news is just how expensive ships are in the Traveller universe: just the computer alone is MCr30 (a model 4 to cover expanded research and all that an exploration ship needs. Also using some of the arguments from COTI that, the way High Guard works, a larger computer gives such a combat edge probably correlates to better sensors and the like). Using the old shipyard application (and really should use one of those spreadsheets on COTI as several are up to date), we get this basic profile:

That does not include the medical bays, research areas and the like. Much of that will emerge from the play. One thing the deck plans show is really 4 bunks per stateroom, basically barracks. But that was for a much larger crew as it included marines. Using double staterooms for most of the crew is there is almost enough staterooms. My crew for the main ship:

• 11 command (+1 for fleet command, Juila?)
• 9 engineers
• 3 flight crew
• 6 services
• 3 ship troops
• 2 gunners
• 9 scientists

And note this is only for the main ship: there are 2 riders that are a bit smaller though almost identical.  They will be worked up in the next post or so. Though they will not have a jump drive (and now realize I need to account for that added tonnage and adjust the jump drive: each of those ships adds 1,400 tons, so our ship size total is now almost doubled to 5,800 tons. Meaning we need a jump drive capable of J2 with a much larger tonnage. Fortunately, High Guard jump drives are pretty small, and doubling the size from 3 to 6% works. Technically, at TL-C, we can only get to jump 3 but we've only got an oversized jump drive for the single ship. The main ship can do 2 jumps without the riders, and a single 2-parsec jump with them. Though I think I am fudging things a bit honestly.

The deck plans are close to what I want. However, to account for fuel and drives, the lower decks that show the drop pods are all fuel and engineering. But we can use the spaces between things for fuel and honestly, close enough for playing games. 

Looking through the Mongoose High Guard (and realize I have the Cepheus version as well!), we can also add the following:

• Life Scanner (TL C) capable of detecting and differentiating life forms. MCr 2.
• Mineral Detection suite, MCr 5
• Laboratory (25 tons for 6 scientists) MCr 6 (the CIC is now a lab)
• Medical bay (and there is one on the ship plans, though it says lab and now the medbay)

I'll note that no gunnery was added, and the question becomes: do I want to add any ship weaponry? They cannot defend themselves, and that should be a consideration. Adding 3 turrets oddly only adds 2 gunners (and realize because we have 2 batteries), but I think they may need to defend themselves a bit. 

Lab space and computer room, formerly known as the CIC

11 command - been a bit since I really looked at the rules. Based on High Guard:

• Commanding Officer
• Executive Officer
• 2 Navigators
• Medical Officer
• Communications Officer

Needing 5 more, we'll add 3 pilots for round the clock shifts, and since this an exploratory mission, a Science Officer, and an Engineering Officer. Seems like a Star Trek bridge crew now. We also have Juila Johon who is in charge of everything - this ship, the 2 support ships and the tanker. 

Good enough to start - not only am I repurposing the ship from the map and info, but MTU is repurposing a ship for its own use as well. 

And on an entirely different note: I bought the Six Million Dollar Man & Bionic Woman series a bit ago. Finally getting around to watching them. Nothing like good 70s TV for nostalgia! 

Strange New Worlds 1, Part 4

A quick note - Strange New Worlds 1 - Part x titles are because I am still working on the 1st world and the prep for getting there. Once I start playing, I'll probably tag these posts with Strange New Worlds or something so I can find them again. 

Anyway, poking through my spaceship collection, and as much as I like the 0Hr ships, they are not normally a good fit for Traveller due to the lack of sufficient fuel. Which I can ignore honestly - there are interstitial spaces for fuel. And I don't want to use the classic Scout ships as I want something a bit larger, and dare I say, more of a rag-tag sort of thing as this is a private/governmental excursion. Plus, if I have minis, I can make pictures :) 

Anyway, I wanted support craft and the 0Hr Trinity fits the bill in a different way than expected. This ship, if I translate it to Traveller terms, would be a battletender almost: the primary ship has the jump drive and carries 2 externally docked ships. Which are almost as big as the main ship. If I convert the lower decks, which are drop pods, into fuel tanks, and replace the 2 flight decks on the support ships also as fuel tanks, it then is close enough! The support ships, when joined to the main ship, can transfer fuel. 

Separation

Plus, each of the 3 ships can carry shuttles. This gives us 3 long term ships for scouting out a system - get enough distance between them and with shared sensors a good 3d mapping of the system should be relatively straight-forward. I'll have another post with the worked-up details for these ships. 

I am also thinking of sending along a fuel tanker. While I'll have fuel scoops on the support ships at least, it may be that they will want to jump into an empty hex. The Humboldt ship is mostly tankage so could carry reserves. Though that ship is a bit more cramped, so thinking the crews may want to rotate to the larger Trinity ships.

Fuel Tanker

Thinking this tiny fleet of 2 jump-capable craft and 2 additional large support craft, along with a bevy of shuttles, will work for my joint exploration trip. While also not having too many NPCs around.

Neither ship will be new - decades old probably. But definitely space-worthy for long voyages. They'll have their annual refurb and maintenance done just prior to leaving, giving us a year before we have to worry about that again.

Still to do:

• Translate the ships to Traveller. The tanker will be 1G, 2J ship, the main Trinity ship 2G/2J, and the support ships probably 3G/0J. But I'll have to work out the tonnages based on the ship information and go backwards from there
• Names for the ships!
• Plan the fleet hierarchy as this is a joint venture. Who is in charge of what. I know we'll need 4 ship captains, and that the 2 support ship captains are under the main ship, but the tanker is its own thing. But there needs to be an expedition head, quite possibly Juila Johon as she is one of the big financiers of this operation and wants to live the glory days.
• Finalize the ship charter and all that. Mostly from the previous post but maybe make some boilerplate legal-like thing. Just for fun.
• Generate the main NPCs. The vast majority, until needed, will just be roles.

And then start the exploration! And dice rolls! And read through the World Builder's Book for ideas, maybe even create my own tables. And re-read the Traveller Solo book as there is the Scout Survey Campaign in there. And I think I've got the 2nd edition as I bought the 1st. So there will be more things to do. 

Finally - I've been with my new company 3 months now. Still a bit stressed but a lot less than I was before. My manager is really nice as are all the people I've dealt with. And will never see - this is the 1st job I've had that is fully remote from the start.