Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Traveller Sunday - Kryslion Cultural Profile

Dug out my old Grand Census book, and generated the cultural profile for Kryslion.  I will have to see about making IS Form 22 later...also adding some T5 stuff from TravellerMap (great resource!)

But here is what I rolled up:

High Common TL:  9
Low Common TL: 8

Energy: 9
Computers: 9
Communications: 8u
Medical: 8
Environmental: B  (with a breathable but dense atmo, this was an interesting roll)

Land Transport: 9 - early grav, ultra-high speed trains
Water: 8 - triphibian vehicles, early gills  (hovercraft are quite common per my interpretation with the dense atmosphere)
Air: B - personal g-tubes, heavy grav modules
Space: 9 - Jump 1, sublight interstellar

Personal Military: 9 - laser weapons
Heavy Military:  9 - lightweight composite laminates

Importance: 0 - unimportant
Homogenity: B - discordant
Acceptance:  A - very friendly
Strangeness: 6
Symbols:  A

Next are two values per item - first is how they profess to be, 2nd is how they really are.
Progressiveness: Conservative / Indifferent  [A/A]
Aggressiveness: Unaggressive / Peaceable [9/B]
Extensiveness: Discordant / Friendly [B/5 - used T5 value]
Uniformity of Law: Territorial  9-999A9
   9 - overall (UWP)
   9 - Weapons
   9 - Trade
   9 - Criminal Law
   A - Civil Law (guess with this population it gets interesting)
   9 - Personal Freedom

Cultural Notes
As previously noted, tattoos are a way of showing social status, including what region you are from. Each arcology has its own symbol and some residents enjoy showing arcology pride. This applies to most of the population.

Additionally, children often care for their elders.

Religious Profile
Just a single predominant religion:  68A5C6-7
   God View       6 - Influential monotheism: God interacts with sophonts only at key moments in life.
   Spiritual Aim  8 - ethical and moral standards are their own reward
   Devotion Req  A - quarterly, every 3 months
   Organization   5 - loose hierarchy
   Liturgical Formality C - informal study groups
   Missionary Fervor 6 - ordinary and willing to convert any sophont
   Number of adherents 7 - 10,000,000 0 - 99,999,999: say 90 million or so.

I'll try and update the guide at some point.

Friday, May 19, 2017

Traveller Sunday - NPC Crew Interactions

The NPCs have been relatively quiet and part of the background without any real personalities.

I've generated a NPC interaction graph, and we'll base the interrelationships off those rolls using the reaction table. Having a 2 in there really indicates some serious hatred for some reason....someone wit ha 12 and the other NOC with a much lower score for may indicate unrequited love...

And it looks like I forgot Li...will have to add her.  So you read the table down the left hand side for that person and how they react to the others. So Franklin really dislikes Purity but gets along well enough with everyone else. Purity does not seem to like Franklin any better.

I need to add more NPC interactions I think to our play.


Franklin 
Ferdinando 
Purity 
Francine 
Quentin 
Franklin 
- 
6 
3 
11 
9 
Ferdinando 
5 
- 
9 
8 
5 
Purity 
4 
11 
- 
8 
2 
Francine 
5 
10 
4 
- 
11 
Quentin 
10 
12 
6 
8 
- 

Sunday, May 14, 2017

Traveller Sunday - On To Kryslion

Away from one dictator and to another!  At least this one is charismatic.  I've started working on the Kryslion guide ( Kyrslion ), and they turn out to be a gregarious people who love crowds and tattoos. Hey - it was what was rolled up, and with a population of 50 billion, liking crowds is a good thing!


Traveller Tracker

Not too much to post here.  I did start on the ship view, which will allow you to edit the ship.  I've got the basic data binding in place, but want to make the view a bit prettier.  Bit at least I got the initial databinding in place!  Next to see if I can go back & update the data as well as reading it.

But it seems there is a VS update all the time, so once I got that at least something done, I went with the update.  So maybe some more this week depending on how much time I get. Real life is not always nice, so my time with this is more limited than I would like, especially once I get started.

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Traveller Sunday - Leaving Cyan

After a day of recovery (that fast drug works miracles apparently, although Travis is still sore and Pennity will be in the hospital for a few months) our Travellers take the Renegade Scout Ship to the Way Station.  I had the poster of the ship laid out & we got to look that over a bit, but as it was just a 2 day trip or so to the Way Station, it was simply there to look at.

The first stop in the belt was at Ming Station, the main administrative hub. They met the Way Station Scout Commander, transferred the funding form the Countess for the new fuel purifier, and opened some initial talks about possibly sharing research from the Lord Fish deal.

They then took a shuttle with the scientists from Le Suroit to a Vanguard class station (another poster map, again just there for looks) where they caught up with the engineers who were finalizing the ship updates.  The Lab Ship now has a spoke that goes all the way through, which contains both the fuel purification system as well as enough fuel so that they can still do a Jump-1. Their manuever spped has dropped a little, so intead of 1G they have something like .95G - close enough not to worry about.  Ferdinando has the drives all recalibrated for the new mass and volume.  While Travis went on a simulator to verify he could still pilot the updated ship (and had 2 very unsuccessful rolls with finally getting a succes - we pictured the scene in Galaxy Quest when the pilot takes the ship out, scraping the port), Li made the rounds and I made reaction rolls for each of the crew. Even without a persuade DM, the lowest was a 7, the highest a 10. So the new crew member apparently fits in quite well.

Sadly, I really had nothing at the Way Station that needed doing despite having my nice big map of Flash Gordon references. So after another day of getting things packed up, the crew move out 100D from the belt, and make the jump to Kryslion.  Travis rolled a 7, so the just while successful will be a bit further out than 100D.

And so I need to start the Kryslion world work up.


Sunday, May 07, 2017

Traveller Sunday - The Rescue of Purity

Over breakfast on the day Purity was to return so that they could go to the Scout Way Station, our Travellers got a frantic call from Purity as she was approaching the starport in the grav APC.  She got cut off in the middle of warning about an incoming object.  Travis, Boris & Li rush to the starport administration building, and call the prison Warden.  He has just found out that the APC was shot down on the east end of Startown, and has no further word.  He urges our adventurers to contact the Marine and port Authority.  The Marines convene a quick meeting.  Due to the political situation, they cannot mount a heavily armed response to this situation.  They do not want a repeat of the riots from 5 years ago, which is what brought the Marines in the first place.

However, lending them Pennity and Pagille, along with a modified ACV (air cushion vehicle or hovercraft) cargo van, our heroes sally forth from the port.  Both characters managed to fail negotiating with the customs official for exiting the port; however, a fortuitous roll by Pennity let them pass through the gates without much more of a delay.  They had their guns in hidden ports - handy having access to high technology which can bypass the local authority's scanning devices as the Marines have discovered for several covert excursions.

I had 3 encounters listed in my maps. The got through customs easily enough.  The warehouse district I managed to roll citizens, and only 2 of them.  So while the reaction roll was pretty low, 2 locals against 4 in a hover van are not good odds so they just gave our group dirty looks.  Finally closing in on the light industrial area, I had everyone roll for surprise.  No one surprised anyone.

As our group approached the rising plume of smoke that they could now see, and noticing people walking in what was obvious to our Marines as a search pattern, they were stopped by 2 well armed soldiers. A brief conversation lead nowhere when there were suddenly shots heard against the roof of the van.  Fortunately, the van had been updated to carry armor. However, the two soldiers in front pulled back and started shooting as well.

At this point Pennity, at the urging of one of the players (sad I can't recall who now...) managed to speed up and take out one of the gunmen, while Pagille rolled down hos window and started shooting as well, managing to take out the other gunmen.  It was at this point more shots were being fired, and Pennity, seeking cover closer to the downed APC, smashed through the loading dock of a small warehouse, crashing to a halt next to several barrels of beer. 

Pagille had been shot during this maneuver, and Dr. Duk-Lyle was using first aid to stabilize him.  At first, due to the positions of Pagille in the front, it was not a particularly successful staunching of the wounds. While Boris moved the injured Marine to the read seats, Travis leapt out the front and grabbed Pagille's gauss rifle. Pennity had left her side with a trusty laser rifle, and was going out the other side of the vehicle.

Pagille was stabilized, and Travis shot very badly several times. While not hitting anyone, he came close to hitting his boots.  Pennity manged to take out at least one gunman but then was almost fatally wounded by a very successful shot.  Boris was quick to the rescue and managed to ably stabilize her. At this point they got unexpected help from above - apparently the APC driver and Purity were in this building, and the driver was lending support from the second floor.  Purity came over to the doctor and Pennity, and getting the Marine's gun started shooting as well.

Travis got hit hard, and falls unconscious to the ground. Purity is not particularly successfully shooting either, but the gunmen are falling back, and the Marines do have more support coming in.

With a lucky shot, the pilot takes down the leader of the group, and the rest flee as the Marines finally show up. 

All are rushed back to the port and get hospitalized and taken care of. Pennity will be recuperating for some time (she was down to 1 point left). Travis opted for the medical slow drug and is hooked up to intravenous feeding for the next 24 hours.

The doctor gets a commendation for his aid, Travis gets free medical care.

Also discovered that these soldiers are actually from the Blade mercenary group from Kryslion. Aphix hired them as plausible deniability several months back, for both training and covert acts against the rebels. Fearing that Purity had discovered something at the prison (she did not) she wanted her killed before she could report anything. 

Fortunately the APC has great airbags as both Purity and the pilot survived without injury.  THe Baldes commander is getting sent to Imperial Prison.  All this fits in with the latest issue of the Freelance Traveller where the mercenary group is described.  As this takes place in 1104, and in the article the leader of the 2nd Platoon is in Imperial Prison, this worked out well to bring in some flavor from some one else's OTU.


Monday, May 01, 2017

Sunday Traveller

The morning started with another light snowfall, covering the port's ;anding fields and buildings. The snow softened the harsh outlines of the older buildings, and covered the ravages of the riots that, five years on, still lingered.

Boris, Travis and Li are having breakfast at the hotels small canteen when their comm's buzz with an incoming call. Li does not yet have a ship comm, she will have to wait until you get to the ship at the Way Station.  It's Purity - she was nearing the port in a prison grav APC when a small rocket launched grenade hit the vehicle, causing it to crash in the eastern part of Startown.  Apparently grav APCs are fairly resilient as she and pilot both survived the crash, but the vehicle itself is pretty much totaled. They have moved to a nearby industrial building and are trying to hide as it appears a small, armed crowd has arrived. She is unable to determine if the crowd are the ones who fired the grenade or have just shown up.  Her final words are, "I don't exactly blend in here well, but we'll continue on foot to approach the port and..." as the transmission gets cut.

Below is the map - the orange circle is where they went down. Talking with the port warden and military officials, due to the current state of affairs on Cyan, the do not recommend a full scale Imperial military approach - they do not want another riot.  They are recommending a more nuanced approach. They have several local ground vehicles that have been modified somewhat to offer better protection, and advise dressing more like the locals.  They will also supply the two Marines that accompanied Boris & Travis on their prison research.  Arms will be concealed in the vehicle and should be able to pass through customs.  So you can bring your pistol and cudgel if you so desire (there is always a chance, however, that you may get caught in customs; however, the Marines assure you that they've done this on more than one occasion for a variety of reasons).

From what the port can tell, there is interference in that area of Startown - the comms are being jammed.  Additionally, no one has claimed credit for the attack.  The port's opinion is that it is not the rebel faction - while not directly pro-Imperial, they do want further trade and access to Imperial goods and services. However, like any movement there are a variety if factions.  They are also not ruling out the local Army, particularly as rocket launched grenades are not easy to come by.

The point of impact is about 10 kilometers out, in a light industrial area.