Eldritch Gits Character - Franklin Deleanor Smith

We're starting a new game, Eldritch Gits. I'm playing a 4-term soldier who went into the Infantry. As I've mentioned in the Space Gits & Fantasy Gits games, the Gits series takes after Traveller a lot in terms of prior history. You go through each term, gains some skills or abilities, and have an event. I managed to go all 4 terms, the max, without going to prison. As did 2 of the other players. One ended up in prison for initially a 3-year sentence but apparently misbehaved and had 4 years added. Though he ended up getting out a year early for good behavior. 

Randomly rolling my background, Frankie is born to poverty. Born 1893 to an impoverished family, he decided the Army was his way out of the wrong side of the tracks. His first term he gained a bit of smarts due to a good Army education. He also improved his dexterity and gained the Athletics skill. His second term, he specialized and joined the Infantry, learning the machine gun skill as well as gaining even more dexterity and strength. His 3rd 5-year term he had a strange encounter with a gypsy: he learned he was going to die on a boat. And as a side note, the GM had already said we would eventually be on a ship later! I feel I need to play Frankie like Mr. T in the A-Team and refuse to go on boats instead of flying! Frankie also met another player's character in prison. We were doing 1 term per player rounds, and one had "you meet someone" and it ended up being me. As we both ended up being enforcers for our gang later, this was our initial bonding apparently. In the final term, I gained some more skills and also made a pact with something "dark" for a favor. I asked for the name of the boat I was going to die on. Which oddly gives me a sense of immortality: if I never get on that boat I won't die! So Frankie can be pretty aggressive about a few things as he feels he won't die until he is on that boat. 

And I also just realized he would have been in the Great War, World War 1. That was July 1914 through November 1918. He was 19 when it started. And actually, let me see when his birthday is: d12 = June, and a d30 = 17. June 17, 1893. Here are some events for the day little Frankie was born:

• Gold is found in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
• The overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani in Hawaii occurred, with American planters establishing a new government. 
• The Wengernalpbahn railway in Switzerland was opened, connecting Wengen to the surrounding areas. 

Frankie has 4 siblings, 4 younger brothers: John, William and James (top 3 most popular names in the 1890s). Random rolls all ended up being younger brothers. Only 1 was also in the Army for the Great War, John, who is a year younger than Franklin. 

After we all went through our terms, we ended up with 2 enforcers and 2 brains of the party. The other players had some fun backgrounds, especially the one who went through prison. The brains of the party also have eldritch books - what could possibly go wrong?! We have a speakeasy behind the Hurricane Books and Curious. We've hired Joey, a kid, to keep watch for the cops, and added a poker table to the roulette table. Currently we get our liquor and load it through the loading dock at the back of the bookstore, which has a hidden door to the speakeasy. We added curious to the name to explain the potential sloshing of the boxes: snow globes, why yes, we do import snow globes. 

I want to play him as a brash person: he lived through the war and saw the atrocities that man can inflict on fellow man. One of the reasons he joined the gang to operate the speakeasy: man can be cruel, and you may as well fleece them for what you can as they deserve no better. His 20 years in the military taught him to be punctual, dress for the environment, and have a firm sense of hierarchy and command structure. Not sure which of the brains, Dr. Theodore "Ted" Knight or Dr. Winston Forrest Roberts, is the one at the top of that structure. But he views Tommy McCaffery as his equal and treats him like one of his younger brothers. The 2 doctors he will always respond with a "sir" in there somewhere as his army career never got him much higher than a sergeant or some NCO level. He also feels invulnerable and will take risks he should not. But refuses to get on boats. And perhaps also looks over his shoulder a bit, wary of that pact with something dark. He sleeps with the lights on, and a knife always strapped to him. 

Still poking around to find a good character image. 1930s soldiers are not hard to find, though I do want drawn art versus photos. For some reason I really don't like using real people for my games. One of my many quirks I suppose. 

most of the character sheet

Traveller System Update 29 - finished data entry and refactored details

Yes, I had a bit more time today as both my regular gaming sessions got cancelled. Life and family happens. And I wanted to get the software to a better place than I left it yesterday. And I needed to get off the couch. I did finish putting in the world details, and then I refactored the planet controller. I was specifically calling the trade classification service which takes in a planet's UWP and spits out a list of trade classifications. We really only use the name, and, as I mentioned in the last post, we're going to be adding more planet details beyond the trade classifications. Such as the world details for gravity, surface area, etc. 

I added a "Planet details service" that will return a dictionary, basically the title and a list of strings. For our trade classifications, dictionary is "Trade Classifications", list of trade classification names. But it will also return (eventually) things like "World details": "gravity 1.125", "escape velocity 12 m/s" and so on. I updated the view to basically take that list and the "title" is a <h5> header and then list the details. 

This means we can add whatever we want to the details and the view will just show it automatically. Pretty easy and generic. Later on thinking we could even add formatting info somehow.

The new service:

using TravSystem.Models;

namespace TravSystem.Services; public class PlanetDetailsService : IPlanetDetailsService { private readonly ITradeClassiificationService _tradeClassificationService; public PlanetDetailsService(ITradeClassiificationService tradeClassificationService) { _tradeClassificationService = tradeClassificationService; } public async Task<Dictionary<string, List<string>>> GetDetails(TPlanet planet) { Dictionary<string, List<string>> results = new Dictionary<string, List<string>>(); List<TradeClassification> trades = await loadTradeClassifications(planet); results.Add("Trade Classifications", trades.Select(x => x.Name).ToList()) ; return results; } private async Task<List<TradeClassification>> loadTradeClassifications(TPlanet planet) { List<TradeClassification> tradeClassifications = await _tradeClassificationService.FindTradeClassifications(planet.UWP); if (tradeClassifications.Count == 0) tradeClassifications = new List<TradeClassification>() { new TradeClassification() { Name = "none" } }; return tradeClassifications; } }

And then the controller just does:
 // GET: TPlanets/Details/5
 public async Task<IActionResult> Details(int? id)
 {
     if (id == null)
     {
         return NotFound();
     }

     var tPlanet = await _repo.GetByID(id.Value);
     if (tPlanet == null)
     {
         return NotFound();
     }

     ViewBag.Details = await _detailsService.GetDetails(tPlanet);
     return View(tPlanet);
 }
and then the view:

@{
    ViewData["Title"] = "Details";
    var details = ViewBag.Details as Dictionary<string, List<string>>;
}
....
@if (details != null)
{
    foreach (var kvp in details)
    {
        <div class="mb-3">
            <h5>@kvp.Key</h5>
            <div>@string.Join(" ", kvp.Value)</div>
        </div>
    }
}

and voila, details!

While working on this, somewhere along the line I wiped out my trade classifications data. I put it all back in using the T5 book. But I did not use commas, and that broke the service. I started putting in commas between each value, then the lightbulb went off - this is pseudohex code, so 1 character per value. I updated the service so that for each line if there are commas, it will split that way, else will split per character. I do need to verify it is working correctly but it does save on some data entry. But it is all or nothing.

ugly mix but allowed

The Wondrous Worlds is setting next to me at my desk. I'll probably do a overview/review of it in the next post or two. I'm also re-reading The Science of the Mind - I used it as a resource for my master's thesis way back and it has been sitting on my science shelf the last 30 years. So figured I should either re-read it or put it into the used bookstore pile to go. Not sure my brain is still up to that!
And yes, halfway through February already. Tempus fugit. And fugits faster as we get older.

And just in case anyone wants to look at the code: https://github.com/COliver988/TravSystem

Traveller System Update 28 - World Data

I felt like getting back to this for a bit. Originally, I was going to start adding some stuff from the World Builder's Handbook but, after finally finding that (the Mongoose version, sadly I just have the PDF but the book is too $$ for me!), and looking at how it did something, I remembered that the Scuts book also had more details. Specifically, I was looking at calculating the gravity for the world. And there is a World Data table on page 48. 

It is now added to the software. I've not finished adding my data, nor added that to the planet details yet but probably will over the weekend later. Meaning I may add a new "planet data" service that this is just the start of. I want to add those quirks about society, the physical details like albedo maybe. And eventually create the animal encounter tables. With events. At least that is the current plan.

I also got the Wondrous Worlds book and will see about doing a preview. Yes, I do seem to do a bit of world building. And probably have far too many books for stuff like that. On the other hand...

Corsairs Session 5: The Leiford Mines

Returning to the Dulcet Spire, Captain Penny gets 2nd mate Smitty to sell the sky whale meat they managed to harvest before the predators started in. Plans were being made: Smitty, John and Leslie, crew members, were to explore and check out the slave market on the Spire. During discussions, they did find that he Leifords did free some Batkin children, and that they found something strange deep in the mines. While discussing plans with the officers, a bosun alerted the captain that Mathew Roberts was requesting to come aboard. After brief greetings and an apology about not being able to get to the trade station at the appropriate time, Mr. Roberts said that the Navy seemed to be concerned about the Wind Razor. The crew did not all wear the appropriate uniforms, and apparently the Apderil Empire has a fairly strict uniform culture. He also had a map of the mines. Which apparently, we all forgot about. I had a couple mine maps ready to go and they never made it to the table. Not really necessary the way we played that scenario.

Deciding that perhaps their stay was over, they sent a runner to the slave market to retrieve their crew and took off post-haste. They did send Smitty to the Harbor Master's office to see if they could get a prorated amount of their docking fees back. Smitty is not a good bargainer: they almost had to pay early termination fees (snake eyes on the attempt. The players should not have let me roll!)

Leo, the pilot, despite several weeks of learning his craft, is still not particularly good with directions. They do manage to get to the mine, only 6 miles away. The fly closer and the officers debark behind the mountain where the guard tower cannot see them. Partway there, there are attacked by a carapaced creature of the Corsair world. Batrina was made aware and not wanting to alert the guard in the tower, drew steel. The battle was fairly swift with Tibbs, the dragonet, putting in the killing blow. And taking a bite to eat. 

Guard tower and mine entrance

Behind the tower, Tibbs provides a distraction from the guard as Batrina climbs up. A brief struggle and she knocks out Frank. The others climb into the crowded tower to decide on plans. There is a hatch in the middle of the floor that leads to the lower section. It is mostly a small storeroom: a barrel of water, some emergency food, and some swords, cross bows and bolts of arrows. 

Henry, the sneakiest of the, goes to the mine, and seeing no one there, sneaks into the passage. The player had a fantastic roll - all successes so he got as far as the barracks before hearing voices. Peaking around one door, he sees the kitchen with a couple guards and several slaves preparing a meal. Across from that is another door, leading to the slave barracks. Hearing that one of the guards, George, is about to head back with food for Frank, Henry darts back out of the mines and up to the tower to alert the others. And just barely in time: George yells from the storeroom that food is ready. Batrina opens the door and lands on top of him. Chili and crackers are everywhere.

A new plan is hatched, and Penny and Leo take the guards' coats, and they all head down the mine shaft. The other guard there, Hedley, looks up to see who is at first assumes it is George as Penny has a chili-stained rag up across his face. There is a quick scuffle, and the guards are trussed up. 

We went through this part pretty quickly: they promised to either take on the slaves as crew (and 5 accepted) or be taking out of the Alderil Empire (the remaining 3). Even though the Lieford slaves live a relatively decent life, it is still being a slave. They find that there were Batkin children in the mines about 6 months back from one of the laves who only had 7 more years (and I'll be frank: the older I get the fast the years go by! Well, actually, Frank is one of the guards and I am Craig <insert canned laughter>). 

They go to the office and find ledgers, including the one indicating:

2 Batkin children, ages appear to be early teens. Remanded to the Batkin Embassy 56 Day Year 1409

And this is where we left things off (with the slight update as above, so now we know that there is a Batkin Embassy somewhere). 

While I think I was a bit better organized this time around, I also feel that we're just sort of wandering in the desert with no real end game in sight. I think I need to give a bit more direction: the characters are privateers for the Repencarras Domain. While they have taken out on Alderial Empire ship in this game, it has been more personal as I am also trying to tie in the characters' background. We've rescued 1 father, that lead to clues to the 2 missing siblings, the Batkin above. So we *may* be able to see about rescueing them or finding out what happened to them. But I think I may have to slip them a note from the Repencarras Domain to remind them of their primary duties: harass the Alderil Empire. Which, now that I think of it, they are doing it if they are messing with mine operations. As those do get tithed to help pay for the government. So, yes, they are doing their jobs!

Matchstick bridge

When I work from home, I often have a scented candle - they do smell nice. Just have to make sure the cats don't get too nosy! I've been saving off the matches and made a bridge (or dock if I stick it over water). I may end up staining it. And it may get longer if I keep going through matches. But this is probably 6 months or more of lighting candles. And I actually do have craft sticks, but I liked the idea of repurposing something that most people would throw out.

why are the edges burned?!

The mug behind the bridge is a geometron mug is from Starshipwright Jeff Zugale's store. I backed his spaceship book from way back as we have many of the same SF art books. 

Corsairs, some catchup and history

The world of Corsairs does exist in MTU, with the repellium being something that only works on this world due to the minerals, magnetic structure of the planet and stellar type (and add in any technobabble to fill in the holes). Of course, the mostly human population as no idea about the rest of the universe: the Builders created the Spires centuries ago. Early settlers that took advantage of the unique aspects of the world to create the floating cities. As with many science fiction stories, over the years they've forgotten their history, though there are history books and tapes buried in archives that have the details. Perhaps a few scholars may know the history. It was a one-way trip for the first settlers. Why? Something I'll have to play with later. Especially if I end up doing a Traveller game in MTU & the players visit Corsairs. That will be an interesting game!

Regardless, the world is now a TL 4 world, with sky pirates, floating islands, and in theory the danger of getting hit by falling sky whale poop. As they do poop for ballast reasons and it has to go somewhere. We've had some...interesting...discussions on some things. Our group, after some exploration, was heading back to the Dulcet Spire, not a whole lot better off than they were other than having a much better idea of where the mine is. 

My group won't read this blog until I point it out after next week's game 😸, and as I've been organizing a few things, I re-found that the mine is held by the Lieford Family. And yes, they also use slaves, including the Batfolk such as Batrina. However, I also want to put in a bit of grey into the black and white world. Slavery is bad. No getting around that. But it is legal in the Alderil Empire, even though a fair number of people do not agree. The Lieford Family takes slavery a bit differently than many that embrace it: they see it more as indentured service. If the group starts poking into the holdings, they'll see that the Liefords free the slaves after a decade, giving them starting money and essentially expunging their records.  Some have even returned to work for the family though that is rare. The mines on the surface are not as dangerous as other surface mines in that there are better protections against the rather violent fauna. The quarters for the slaves, while not lavish, are not just piles of hay and a bucket. The few guards that the mine employs are more to keep track of the surface creatures and protect the workers. While not by choice, the slave miners generally recognize that as abhorrent as slavery is, with the Liefords it is a temporary thing and they are not mistreated. 

Bringing this up now to let it also stew in my head a bit. Murder hobos are great for some games, but who knows if that goblin you just killed is just some parent trying to make a living. Which is the basis of this Kickstarter, and no, I not backing it even though I do like the Merry Mushmen. I can really run the same thing with pretty much any game system, and as I have way too many to even play the ones I have, I am trying to be responsible! But I want there to be some moral reckoning in case they go in, guns and cutlasses blazing. Well, I suppose a cutlass won't blaze. Unless it is a laser cutlass!

One of the things I am thinking about sticking into the mine is an ancient ship that crashed centuries before. It would not be operational, but may make the players think more about the world and the universe it is in. Plus, I could use one of my posters from 0-Hr. And, err, yes, I am backing the latest one for a large space station. So much for being responsible! But one of these days we WILL play Full Thrust and I'll need my little spaceships!

And there are some interesting discussions over on COTI. The "1G ships cannot leave a world of 1G or more" discussion is always interesting though some get very adamant about their positions. I try not to: it is a game we play for fun and as with all RPGs, we each make it our own. The discussion came up about using a launch loop and they shot it down as completely unrealistic and not practical. It is a science fiction game based on pulp SF - for me it does not need to be realistic or practical. It has to have some basis in reality, and yes, as soon as you have magic grav and fusion technology, you really no longer need a lot of these sorts of things. And yes, there is a reason I bring this up in this post: sticking repellium and the world of Corsairs in MTU would probably not go over well with some people as being "not based in fact and/or unrealistic". There is a reason it is MTU. And the way Traveller started out, you could have a steampunk world next to a high-tech nirvana. The Traveller universe honestly does not make a lot of sense outside of the earlier pulp science fiction on which it is based. The Imperium grew from "something way over there" to basically taking over the OTU.

But I digress. I have been painting some of the stuff from Archon. Still a WIP but the plastic pile of shame is, well, still the plastic pile of shame. Though part of my organizing also managed to get some of the minis in the last box into storage with others of their kind: my goblin and kobold tubs have a few more friends now.

And hopefully for those who got snow, everyone stayed safe and warm. We got about 6" of snow. 

we feed squirrels. I like squirrels

goblin hut. well, one wall for testing.

painting in progress. all 4 walls make the hut

and a cardinal. 

Happy February! Yep - time is flying faster and faster. Though I still do not have a flying car. 

Organizing, Attempt 4,321

I've decided as mentioned to try a notebook approach to organizing. Which I've done a few times before, generally successfully. I had already bought holders for index cards to fit in a regular notebook. Then I dug back into my office supplies stuff as I was pretty sure that was where I put the paper protectors as well. Which is when I discovered I already had note card holders for those smaller notebooks! Yes, I do love office supplies for some reason. And I have a LOT of those baseball card protectors. Which, if you cut an index card in half, make convenient NPC character card holders as well.

options!

Going with the regular sized notebook as that is what I normally print things to, but now I can use that smaller notebook as well.

I went back and started writing down the NPCs but realized I've misplaced a few notes somewhere. But I started and will get more done this week. We are meeting this next Saturday at the moment, but between the storm barreling down on us, and my child (at 25 no longer a child but age does not change that) flies back home Saturday to Minneapolis. Thinking that the time to drop him off at the airport should allow me to get back in time as the game is at my house. And of course, my wife and the mother of said child may take him to the airport. Just not sure how things are going to go for a few reasons. Which is one of the things I won't go into here. 

Anyway, hoping to find the rest of the notes as I had a bunch of the ship crew names written down. I do need to perhaps use the full-size cards for more important NPCs, but this is, as always, a work in progress.

NPCs!

And about finished with Gervase the Ettin from the Caves Archon Kickstarter. It has been a fun paint, and now to put him someplace safe and someplace I can find him later!

close enough for done!

he does have two chickens hanging off his belt. 

I do have the Traveller project up and perhaps will do something more with it a bit later. Sadly, I feel I am losing interest in it again. That may be due to spending 8 hours a day writing the same sort of thing for work. Just did some major refactoring after a review from our consultant, though it was mostly an AI overview and suggestions. Most were valid, but some missed the larger context. Software is both simple and complex, and the applications does a few things in parallel which requires thread-safe operations. Which the AI complained about and suggested the "traditional" way. However - that way will break the application. I know - that was my original approach. But there was this import jo that was taking 2+ hours to read in an Excel file for a data import. I moved a lot of the DB actions to run in parallel with limits so I don't do a DOS attack on our own server (which, yes, I have done before. Lesson learned!) It now runs in less than 15 minutes. Part of that was running in parallel, another part I actually moved the process to run on the server in the background. Fun stuff, but the AI missed that larger context of how I am using those repositories that access the DB. In the end, I've been hearing for decades how "technology A" is going to replace developers. Like flying cars and fusion power plants, one of those things that is always 5 years in the future for a few decades. Then is suddenly here. Paradigm shifts happen when they happen. This is a good book that explains that: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions