Thursday, December 31, 2020

End of 2020

 Wrapping up the end of the year 2020 and it was NOT a double critical hit year! A lot of things have happened and I won't go over them as there will be enough of that in the billion other end of year posts.

Looking over my blog stats, I still tend to have about a 50/50 breakdown of Macs vs PCs and an interesting and similar range of browser choices. And somehow I picked up another follower - up to a whopping 17! Thanks everyone! 

Part of that is I am also adding links to other blogs (see my Traveller blog roll over on the right) for those I find interesting. While it started out as all Traveller, this blog, and the ones I follow, gravitate to Traveller but cover other games as well. I tend to post game recaps for the games I run, but not the games I play in. 

This last year I've played an old west game with an English miner who likes dynomite, a space cat in a super hero game, and continue to play Sir Zay, an D&D character in a microlight game as well. That last game we've been playing for almost 4 months now, though there were a couple of gaps. The Asheville Gaming Club did a 2 month / 1 month cycle for games. While this allowed for a good rotation, it also meant some things were rushed or incomplete. Now we're playing until we get to a good spot, then rotate. It give a more natural scale to grow the characters I feel.

I've run the Corsairs game and tried to keep the Fantasy Trip game in play. While the remains of the AGC can play over Skype, the Fantasy Trip group is a dad & his kids, and being 9 and 13 or so, table top gaming really needs to be played in a table top. Hopefully the vaccines and everything will allow us to get back to face to face gaming next year. It better - I have a lot of physical things to hopefully help in game play! Plus a lot of minis coming around next year. Which I need to paint...

This has been a bad year for a lot of things: I am working from home full time which is great in many ways (and funnily enough something I fought for earlier for the other developers and upper management was not convinced people could work from home. Now they are getting rid of the offices and everyone will be working from home even after the pandemic! Turns out we can be productive from home. Go figure!) I am also working at a 30% pay cut, so I've had to cut way back on a few things. Which is probably all for the good as I do have too many things already. Good thing I am generally a cheap person anyway. And, having been laid off more than 10 years ago, I've become a lot more savings oriented, so I can get by with a lot less than I was making if I had to. You learn a lot, after the panic is over, when something like that happens to you.

But it has also been a good year for other things, though I would be hard-pressed to tell you what. I do get to see my cats a lot more, and the dog & I go on a daily 1-2 mile walk at lunch. I miss the ducks, but I also make 50% decaf coffee to get to drink more coffee in the morning. I've saved a lot on gas - the first few months the gym was closed and I only filled up my tank once in 4 months!

I've lost one friend to Covid recently, my son turned 20 and is acting like a 20 year old. Meaning my hair is getting greyer faster than ever now as we worry, and he cannot understand why we worry. If he ever has children, and I'm around with they hit late teens, I'll try & remind him of what he is putting us through. But that is the nature of life: I did the same thing to my parents, and in fact moved in with my girlfriend at 20. That caused a major rift in my family, so him staying over a night or two a week is not the same but I cannot really say anything about it. It is just uncomfortable. 

Sorry - end of year thoughts sometimes get me thinking about times past!

To end this post, thinking about future times. I am hoping to run another Traveller game, either continuing the Big Wreck or starting another game. Assuming we can resume face to face gaming, the Fantasy Trip group is eager to get back to gaming. We've a 1935 vigilante game coming up next, and possibly an anthropomorphic game as well. We may get another round of Corsairs in as the supplements really expand out that game a good bit and bring in more crunchiness. And I've a dark, grim RPG I may want to try & run a short version of. Need to stop by an office supply store to print it out - I just cannot read a PDF and run a game well! And I've actually started prepping for the character challenge (err, cheating, as I have 3 characters ready to go, but will post only 1 per day. I just know that a lot comes up and I don't have a lot of free time to spend on these sort of things. So I need to take advantage of those days I do!)

And to everyone out there - have a great new year, and here's hoping 2021 is a fantastic year for everyone!

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

January Character Challenge

One of my fellow bloggers found a challenge for January, and I thought I may see if I can somehow squeeze in the time to try this. His post is here. Now, I can roll through classic Traveller generation in fairly short order, but this will give me a chance to go through a few other systems. While I do have a LOT of potential career paths (see my career bibliography here), I also have a few other game systems I may roll up characters for. I do plan on the majority of these characters to be Traveller, from Classic, Mongoose, Cepheus or T5.

For those days I simply only have a few minutes, The Fantasy Trip can be a quick character system. And I will be cheating - probably try to do a few extras on those days I have some time for. But I am hoping to post 1 character each day. I will capture each die roll and go from there. Those that have played Traveller enough know that the character generation is a fun game in and of itself; it is easy to add a bit of extrapolation to the rolls as to what is happening to the character. While this is barely implied in the classic generation, Mongoose added events that occurred during generation to make it explicit. And I like that as it can spark the imagination, and generally gives you at least a couple of choices for those events and how they get handled. 

I think I'll also see if I either have buried in my piles of games stuff a personality generator/random table or find an on-line one, or even create my own multi-axis system. Something with things like optimistic vs pessimistic, thoughtful vs spontaneous, things like that. There are a lot of these on-line, such as this one or this one. Maybe after I do this enough times I'll have a better idea of what I am looking for: I know that it should be actionable in some way in a game. And I need to get better at NPCs - I can generate them left and right, but playing them...I may try for an index card of the character as I do better when I have something written down in front of me to reference. 

My plan is to go through a few of the T5 character generation processes which will take me quite some time, Classic Traveller which could be very quick if I fail the survival roll, The Fantasy Trip for 32-36 point characters, and perhaps dig through some other game systems I've accumulated over the years and never actually used. I've a Fate game coming up, and while I do have my primary character mostly created, she has a staff. So I may try to see about her primary butler/body guard, name him Heimlich. I've had a Heimlich character in several games now, generally a Dwarf as that is how he got started. A player in my group does not like Heimlich. So he shows up every game I can. Along with something with Bird in the name (one RPG it started as Birdy for an areal drone, next game of Five Rings it was Birdsong of the Northern Mountains, my horse. I try to have a common thread running through games I play or referee. I think it is fun. Not so sure if my players do though it generally does have a groan involved).

I'll use the tag challenge for these posts, along with characters and whichever game system the character is getting generated in. Trying to get a bit better about being able to find things in this blog, which has I've posted to more than I thought I would when I first started writing about my various trade program attempts (hey, one worked pretty well, but then I started changing which version of .Net I was targeting, and then Microsoft started a really fast cadence for updates. So I've not caught up and gotten lazy)

I may also see if I can find a character design that may work, so that there is an image. If I have enough time & get carried away, I may even try to include a PDF for the character sheet. 

And I've only played Shadowrun the 1 time (where I had the drone). But here is a character collection. Just like having an image in my posts!



Sunday, December 27, 2020

Of walls and magnets

 So it is going pretty slowly to getting the walls put together and those tiny magnets in place. I do have a technique finally that helped: once I got one of the wall pieces set up correctly (and basically there are north and south pole orientations, so one edge of the wall has north, and the other south). As one edge of the wall is a column, and the other not, you have to make sure the non-column edges are opposite of the column edge magnets. Let us just say I've had to take apart more than one wall to re-orient the magnets!

My current technique is to have my base and correctly aligned magnets in a wall, then attach a column of magnets to the wall. This lets me know which side needs to be facing out on the opposite wall edge. Having a column of about 10-15 magnets means I don't drop these tiny 5x3mm magnets, and allows me to slide in the top one into the hole and bend off the rest. Yes, wargamers with a history of using magnets probably already know this. But it does seem to be working. Then I sand down the edges where I've clipped them off the sprues. Eventually these will get painted, just not sure how I am going to do this. Probably a base coat of red for the Cobalt Factory walls, and I may just paint the stone base and details on the Kazumi Temple as the yellow they came in looks a lot like sandstone.

Regardless of my trials, I have enough of the temple walls to make the big room we last left our valiant characters in, and with the two doors in about the right place as well. I think this does help set the scene a bit better, though I'll have to finish up some more full walls:

I've also been reading dome reviews on published adventures, and think I'll follow up with some of those suggestions. Essentially have some of the descriptive paragraphs with bolded descriptions for the immediate feel of the room, maybe the 1st one or two sentences. And I have started connecting some of the rooms with recurring themes and small puzzles that may help them in other rooms. Not that I am planning on publishing this, though down the road that may be something I pursue. I always did want to be a writer, after all. It just may take a few more decades than I thought.

And Happy post-Christmas everyone. I got carried away with family stuff, so that is a good thing! I hope everyone has had a great celebration no matter what you are actually celebrating (if all else, hopefully a day or two off work!) We had a white Christmas which was nice. Though the storm came up fast and iced up the roads in an amazingly short time period - there were cars abandoned all over as they had no traction. It was like a post-apocalyptic scene in some ways!


I also followed up on what I had as a child: sticky rolls for breakfast. Homemade yeast sticky rolls that I ate far too many of, but growing up, my mother made these and we had to wait for them to be ready before we could open presents. Oddly enough, my son will just sleep in and we finally had to wake him up!


Not that you could make these on the trail for our adventuring group, but a bakery in a town or inn may have so really nice sweet rolls! Maybe I'll add sweet rolls to some inn or something along the way - nothing like waking up to the small of homemade bread!

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Lamia's Labyrinth Solo Test Part 4

Knowing what will happen does take away from a bit of the excitement, so I am rolling dice to see what happens to make it a bit more random.

Coming around the curve, the characters see the entrance to a large round room. And here I am testing some walls out (and yes, stacking the magnets means I can remember which way to put them in, and I don't keep dropping them!) These are the Kazumi Temple walls and, while not exactly what I was thinking when designing this, are still temple walls. Like the original Star Trek series, we'll just use different lights to make the walls look like different temples! 


Opening up behind this door (which is really a lot wide - I'll use an archway when we get to playing this for real to make it about the right width) is a large, circular room, dead bodies strewn all over the place.


In the middle is the raised dais and a book on a stand. Knowing what happens, I still roll a die, and the characters decide to look at the 3 open doors first, stepping around the dead bodies. The first door shows the 20x20' room with the skeleton and the wolf-shaped jewel. Some one does try to get the ring, everyone failed to see that it was a zombie ring. The zombie skeleton comes to life! However, it was actually a shorter round than I thought: while only 2 of the 3 characters actually hit it, they have enough weapon strength that they managed to kill it before it could attack. Considering it has a 3d-1 damage for a 2 handed sword, a hit could conceivably kill a character in a single blow. However, as it was rapidly killed, that was never an issue. I am thinking to make this more of a challenge it should have more ST. As the ST is based on how much the wizard put into it, it does allow for a lot stronger creature. I'll update the guide to allow it to be adjusted as necessary based on the party. And yes, that is a Lego zombie: I currently am lacking in zombie minis, though that will be corrected over the next few months as I have 3 mini orders from Kickstarters showing up, and I think they ALL have zombies. So there will be zombies! In the end, they now have the zombie ring and the stone of summoning from that room.

The next room is the room with the 3 caskets, and that is where I ended up stopping the play for the evening. It took longer to get things set up than I would have thought!

But I think I can make a list of the things I'll need to run this adventure so as to not have to bring a pickup full of gaming gear!

First, my dry erase gaming mats work better for some of the rooms, so I think we'll use that this time around. My fishing box for miscellaneous fantasy scenery and the can full of some of the things as well (which is slowly getting added to, but at least I do have 2 caskets though I need 3!). So far a zombie mini and  a giant spider (that plastic one is more the size I think than the ancient D&D metal mini.

So updating the PDF (which I'll link here) in case anyone want to play this as an adventure. The list of things needed will grow as I continue my play test. May even see about breaking it down by room: add an appendix or something perhaps. 

And if anyone does play it, let me know how it worked out! A solo play test is like proof-reading your own writing, or code reviewing your own code: it is not too useful, though better than nothing! May have to see if I can get my work gaming group to perhaps give it a try - we've been playing Zombicide for a while, and a change of pace may be nice.

Friday, December 18, 2020

Tiny magnets

 My gaming scenery showed up from Rampart: I got the Cobalt Factory set and the Kazumi Temple set. Hoping that they can be used for fantasy, SF, steampunk and other games. Once we get back to the table! Decided that I would try magnets rather than use the pegs as it would be easier to put together and break down.  I ordered the appropriate 3x5mm magnets. The picture made them look huge, even knowing that they were tiny. They show up in a little tiny case, 100 magnets. 

I start to put some in, and make sure that I am consistent with the positive and negative sides so things will work. Let us just say between fat fingers and tiny magnets, it has taken a lot more effort to get just a few into where they need to be. Including having to break apart one of the columns (fortunately glue had not set) to reverse the magnets. I think more than once. I need to make sure I stick with a 'perfect' piece and verify that the magnets are appropriately aligned based off of that piece. And hope that piece is set up correctly! It is just a lot more work as these things are tiny!

I did try to mark with a Sharpie, but it got wiped off. I think if I keep them in a stack that may work: just push the end one where it needs to go. While I am sure I'll get better and faster as I go along (and I'll probably have to order more magnets as I have 3 core sets, so there are a LOT of walls). So if anyone has any good ideas about the best way to do this, let me know!

And I think the walls will work better for some things: while Traveller can use a square based floor, the primary fantasy RPG I run is the Fantasy Trip and that uses hexes. These walls I can just plop down on the megahex boards or game mats and should be good to go.

A final thing: this is the 2nd of 3 Kickstarters I've followed for this group. They actually do their own molds and plastic injection, and their updates show the production process. It is really cool to see how these things are actually made.  

Now to get to a table where we can have walls, floors and minis! I miss the face to face gaming a lot.



Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Fantasy Symbols and labels

 I like physical props are the table, though I've yet to be able use them effectively. I've a couple small glass bottle that look like perfect things for potions and realized I needed to stick some sort of label on them. So I whipped up a quick sheet and printed on some parchment paper. Turns out the labels may be too big as they are small bottles, but I can always use them for something!

And the PDF is here: symbols PDF

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Traveller SOLO: Leaving Krim 250-1106 and designing RUDI

 Somehow we did manage to find the evidence Vax Datos was looking for, along with what seems to be small AI that pleaded for help. Who were we to turn our backs on it? Plus it looked a lot like some of my vidcams I've used over the years: a floating sphere with a camera. But this one talked with us, and we managed to escape with it as well.

Back at the port, we have three very fancy autonomous grav vehicles in the lower bay, and a few crates and luggage for our guests in the empty vehicle bay. I walked our two guests to their stateroom and went over the emergency procedures. We launched within our launch time successfully, Watching sensors as the No Refunds moved to the jump point, I noticed a small craft that seemed to be following us: we were heading out-system and the ship was not a jump capable craft. As there were Space Patrol craft near by, we were not concerned. A few hours later we were where Captain Luax wanted us to be, and with Lando's blessing from the engineering deck, we entered jump space.

As soon as we were safely in jump space, I shut down my sensor deck, and started the meal preparation. First meal after jump was a spacer tradition according to the captain. While I was no chef, I managed to help Ewo cook up a fairly splendid feast. We even broke out some vintage wine from Nix, an agricultural world with a dense, tainted atmosphere that somehow grows some amazing grapes that produce a very well cultured wine. Our guests seemed to enjoy the repast before settling back into their stateroom for the first night.



So I made an 8 on the astrogation roll, and as there is not an actual astrogrator on board other than our uber-capable Ewo with astrogation-0, we still had nothing to worry about on that roll. We'll come out about where we expect to come out.

The week in jump I roll on the on-board ship events: one of the passengers appears to be extremely reclusive, and other than that 1st meal, the rest of the crew never sees him again. The other passenger, a woman named Carie Rezel, while we do see her, is also a bit stand-offish. In between cleaning and checking over the cargo (those are some sweet rides from Psziz!), Malik gets to know the robot.


Seeing if I can make my way through the T5.10 robot maker process. I may also see about the Classic Traveller Book 8, Robots, or see if there are any Cepheus rules for dealing with robots.

Size and form

This strangeform (non-humanoid) robot has a positronic brain, resulting in a holographic intelligence pattern begin developed in the iridium sponge. I want this to be about the size of a soccer ball or so, which turns out to be about 5.57 liters. So that will be 5.57 units, which is going to be pretty small for the rest of the robot! 

Brains

Using the brains table, we can calculate just how smart this is, which is a function of cost. The size is 2 units (leaving us 3.5 units) and for an intelligence of 10, putting it a bit smarter than your average human, will cost us KCr200. Note that a positronic brain ages, never sleeps, is self-powered, cannot use wafers, does not require air and has a natural personality.  Note that out C4 stat is 10, or A. C4 equates to human intelligence. 

Senses

RUDI (from the Jetsons, Referential Universal Digital Indexer. Not sure what he? she - rolled an even die, so RUDI thinks of herself as a she). The major senses (vision, hearing, smell) are in a single cluster. RUDI will not need smell, but her vision is the normal RGB for KCr10, plus telescopic for KCR40, as well as a vision replay screen (going with a holographic a la R2-D2) for KCr10. Hearing is on par with normal humans for KCr10 along with a replay module for KCr20. There is no touch awareness or smell. So other than telescopic vision, RUDI sees and hears as well as most humans do. It helps that Krim has a G6 star, so the visual range would be about the same as our star.

Body

So here is where things get tight. There is not a body, so no muscles. She has a extra-small arm (Arm-1) with a dexterous grasper for KCr10. These take 2 units, leaving us with a single unit left over. There is a standard skin, mostly of plastics and ultralight metal, so RUDI is no bruiser. Looking at the rules, RUDI won't have the 1st 3 characteristics (ST,R DEX, END) as she is basically a floating ball with a very small arm and grasper. 

Education

With an INT (C4) of 10, RUDI can have up to a EDU (C5) of 10. Oddly the table only lists EDU for 2,4 & 6. We'll give RUDI EDI 6 for KCr90. This allows RUDI up to 10 + 6 or 16 skill levels. Which may be very significant.

Sanity

Apparently robots have sanity checks, and a 5 or 6 is reasonable for a robot rarely facing challenges. Rolling I rolled a 9, so that seems reasonable as RUDI was asking to escape. KCr9 for that level. 

Social Characteristics

RUDI, being a robot, does not have social standing, nor caste. So her C6 stat is charisma. RUDI actually has a Charisma of 6 - she can lead and instruct other robots, but will obey most organics. 

Skills

Here is where I need to think through what RUDI was actually designed for. Seeing as the company that created her was both high-tech and engaged in corporate spying, her skills may reflect abilities for that. One half of the skill levels goes to the primary skill, which if RUDI is used to index foreign computers...2ary would be languages for 1/4 or 2. And finally, a Recon of 2 to be a bit sneaky, leaving us with 1 skill left that we'll leave open for the moment.
  • Computer 5
  • Language 2
    • Anglic
    • Trokh (Aslan)
  • Recon 2

Manufacturer

Sprockets of Krim has created RUDI as a prototype spy / espionage robot to infiltrate other corporations and get industrial secrets.  Technically she is RUDI-001, a prototype

Miscellaneous not covered

As we've all of 1.5 units left over, going to make that a repulser / grav unit and a power cell. The rules don't work for this scale, so we can go with small fusion batteries that need to be topped off about monthly (water). RUDI is not particularly fast, can move at about a fast human run. The grav is limited and she cannot lift anything more than about 5 kilograms, which will also slow her down a bit. She also has no control codes, being a prototype.

Summary

RUDI-001   000A66    KCr389 
Arm-1 with dexterous grabber
Vision: RGB with telescopic vision, replay. Audio replay and standard audio range. 
Computer-5, Language 2 (Anglic, Trokh), Recon 2
4 week power charge via fusion battery, grav enabled.

Sunday, December 06, 2020

Creatures: Flying Jellyfish

 It all started with a comic:

And I mentioned on our group text conversation that I could stat that out, and then several ideas bounced around. So thanks to my gaming group, I'm creating a new Fantasy Trip creature, and potentially even a race.

Floating Jellyfish are essentially floating slimes, though they have tentacles and move a bit faster than their ceiling-based counterparts. Just like slimes, they come in a multitude of colors and affects. Unlike slimes, some even appear as almost humanoid. For the most part they are found only underground, and are one reason some dungeons appear vermin-free.

Jellies will follow their prey as long as they are in sight: should you get behind a bend in the labyrinth the jellies will lose sight and stop the chase. They will probably go back to where they were originally found for your return trip out of the dungeon.

Floating jellies have an IQ of 1, a DX of 6 and a MA of 4. Their tentacles are generally easy to avoid as they are not quick, but if they do contact you they are difficult to get off: roll 4d vs ST due to the adhesive aspect of these things. ST for jellies ranges based on size: swarms of small jellies have a ST of 2-4, while a giant jelly could have a ST of 15-35 and take up to 2 hexes. The humanoid jellies are an entirely different class of creature, and have the following base stats: ST 8-12, DX 8-12, IQ 8-12. They also get an automatic 2nd attack after the normal attacks due to having a lot of tentacles. Communication with the humanoid jellies is possible, if barely. It is unknown if the other jellies are related in some way or not.


Small Jellies

These tend to swarm, with 2-12 jellies per swarm. ST 2-4, DX 6, IQ 1. They must be in your hex to attack.

Medium Jellies

These are smaller swarms of 1-6 jellies, ST 4-6, DX 6, IQ 1. They must be in your hex to attack.

Large Jellies

These tend to be solitary creatures but sometimes come in pairs. On 1d6, 1-5 = a single jelly, 6 = 2 jellies. ST 15-35, DX 6, IQ 1. These jellies have a bit of reach: their tentacles can reach out up to 3 hexes away. Getting past one in a corridor is not too difficult, but if they do manage to grab hold of a character, it is a 4d vs ST to get away, while taking damage each turn. You can either fight the jelly or attempt to get away.

Humanoid Jellies

These tend to be solitary as well, though often small swarms of jellies are nearby. They are also the only jellies that can change colors. The humanoid jellies do not always attack, and on a 5d vs IQ (subtract 1d for each language the character knows; someone knowing 3 languages would roll 2d6 vs IQ) one may be able to determine that there is some form of visual communication going on with the tentacles and color. ST 8-12, DX 8-12, IQ 8-12. 

Jelly Colors and Damage

Jellies are similar to slimes in that their colors indicate the types of damage they can do. Damage though depends on the size:
  • small jellies 1 hit per round
  • medium jellies 2 hits per round
  • large jellies 3 hits per round

Green Jellies

A strong acid-based makeup allow these jellies to eat through any organic material in quick order. It has minimal affect on metals; however, it can get through the smallest crack after 1d6 rounds if not removed before then. As per green slimes, cuts and blows do no damage to the resilient creatures, and fire does double damage. A common way to get through a swarm is swinging your torches through them as the jellies are afraid of fire and will move away. 

Yellow Jellies

a contact poison on the yellow jellies will do twice the normal damage based on their size, though this counts as fatigue damage and is recoverable after the normal resting rules. Once their prey is unconscious they secrete a mild acid that slowly dissolves their food. Unlike their green brethren, cuts and blows do some damage but their flexible skins can absorb 2 hits of damage.

Purple Jellies

These faster jellies are more dangerous than most jellies: their MA is 6 and DX is 8. Faster and more dangerous than the others. purple jellies are like the brown slimes and try to smother their victims. While not corrosive, as per the brown slime rules if it covers you for more turns than your current strength, you can smother. Unlike brown slimes. it is still affected by blows but can absorb 3 hits of damage. You can tear up the jelly depending on the size: small 2 turns, medium 4 turns and large 10 turns per person. So two people could tear a small jelly on 1 turn, 2 people could tear up a medium in 2 turns, and two people could tear up a large in 5 turns. 

Traveller Stats

It has been a minute since I've done Traveller creature stats, and a lot of that depends on the version you are playing. But for Classic Traveller:
Jellies can be found on planets with a dense atmosphere. They are trappers, catching their prey in their tentacles. Flyers that use hydrogen gas to both float and perform minor movements. 

Size: 1-3 kg; 4 hits to unconscious and 8 more to kill (they are resilient), armor as per jack and attack as per teeth.  Attack: if surprise. Flee 6+; Speed: 0. Armor as jack; damage is 1 point 

    1 Trapper 1kg 4/8 1  jack 2  teeth A-Surprise F6 S0 

Thursday, December 03, 2020

Windemere Crossing - People and Keyed Map

 I've been doing some minor updates to the original post detailing all the places, getting some numbers and colors to help guide you through Windemere Crossing. I'll continue that process, and my guess is eventually I'll try and do another PDF, perhaps a shared world if I can get any of my friends to run a game! It could be another base. While I like Edge City, it is way too big, though I do have that entire book on Ankh-Morpork so I do not lack for chrome there. But is it useful chrome? I'd like to make this a a useful place.


So now we have a color and number coded map, and the locations as previously noted. To make this useful, though, we need to have NPCs that the players can interact with, and have things. Perhaps even some mapping of how the NPCs may relate to one another. 

Digging into my ever growing stash of Kickstarter publications, I found this one from the Characters book from Fish in the Pot:

Rennor is a young black-haired Orc teenager who wishes to be captain of the guard. Found busily patrolling the streets, not affiliated with any company, her tall and stoic demeanor is cut short by her awkward proportions, lanky figure and cheap padded clothing stained to look like armor. While she is still shy of stopping anyone who is acting shady, Rennor has a keen eye and a sharp memory and is a friend to the community at large.

We've already established there is a single family of Orcs in town, and Lurbuk's oldest daughter is a vet at the stables. Rennor is the youngest daughter of 6 girls. Lurbuk's few forays into town for drinks often have gentle ribbing that he lacks any sons. She is friends with Keze Briarlegs, the town's second tailor. Keze makes the padded clothing Rennor wears on her "rounds", getting the dyes from Mika's textiles a couple blocks east of his shop. The sheriff, Ira Sprigbasher, looks at Rennor as one of his first choices when he does need a posse, simply for her strength and somewhat intimidating form. The deputy Ellis Newtonson is actually afraid of her, and dislikes the fact that the sheriff will call on her sometimes to help him, usually with rowdy brawlers. Being a foot taller and probably a hundred pounds heavier, Rennor is better suited for breaking up fights. And the townspeople that know her also know her father. And would rather avoid any confrontations with him!

Rennor notices everything that goes on about town, and is looked on favorably by most of the town's residents. She does steer clear of the half Elves and the Silver Pirate, but usually makes several circuits of the town and knows every street, alley and animal in Windemere Crossing. 

Using another KS publication, One Page Lore: Fantasy Folk (by Jesse Galena), and combining with the Fantasy Trip's Orcs which generally nasty and brutish, we have Orcs that are going to be stronger than most people, are despised in general by Dwarves and Elves (which is why she avoids the Silver Pirate!), and have a mental tenacity. They are carnivores, and while Lurbuk and family have nothing against eating a kill, fresh or not, cooked or not, while in town they do try and least have a modicum of manners. Not that anyone would say anything to Lurbuk's face! Orcs also have excellent night vision which is why Rennor will often patrol at night. 

Being a teenager, she will be your base 32 point character. She is someone visitors to the town might notice, and while at first glance think she is part of the town patrol, a closer look (2d vs INT) it will be easy to notice that she is wearing baggy clothes that only appear to look like armor, and the pike she has is just a stick with a rough-made knife tied with twine to it.  So my first NPC for Windemere Crossing!

Rennor Lurbuk, Orc female, 18 years old

STR: 14    DEX: 10 (adjDX: 9)    INT: 8
Skills: 
  • Knife
  • Brawling
  • Area Knowledge (Windemere Crossing and out to 10 miles or so outside the area)
  • Horsemanship (her father does run the stables and she helps along with her 5 sisters)
  • Running
  • Quarterstaff (she does practice but the knife keeps falling off, so she is not learning pole weapons)
Weapons, armor:
  • cloth (stops 1 hit; looks like real armor until you get close)
  • quarterstaff (1d+2)

So we also have some relationships here:




Sunday, November 29, 2020

World Building - Windemere Crossing

This, and my Traveller Career Bibliography, are going to be works in progress. I may take each to make a document from, but until then, I'll just update these posts and, when I have another post, will keep things updated. But I have added a Windemere tag, so you should be able to search for them now by tags. Going to go ahead & hit publish on this one, but I'll come back to it as I expand it out. In ways that will probably never get used by my players, but hey, I do like to world build. I can at least live in some of these places in my own mind.  

I tried to play a bit with Campaign Cartographer's City mapping but that will take a LOT more practice to get anything close to what I want. In the meantime, this site (Watabou) makes some really cool random things, and I've always liked the medieval cities it can generate. After a few random hits, this one came up that does have the east/west route as well as a southern route back into the mountains. And about the right number of buildings. 


We do know that a few of the buildings are outside the walls, including the tanneries due to the smells. I'll have to look a bit closer at the various shops we have and place them in the map. The central plaza there is the marketplace with a central fountain of some sort. I'll see about a color coded map for the places I expand out here, and try to note the color and number in the description.

Northern Gatehouse from D'Architect (yes, a KS I backed as it has some really nice pictures!)


We need our list of what is available, as well as whatever additional info to make the shops a bit more interesting. Though honestly I've yet to make some of that role playing come across well. It is like the mapping: what is in my head does not seem to come out the same way. The answer to that is the same answer to most things: practice, practice, practice!

I am also using a few other resources I've picked up to help flesh out Windemere Crossing. I'll note where those come from as well.

And onwards to the shops and services listing. The notes in the parenthesis are number of help and the general quality. I = Individual, T = Team, G = Guild. 

General Store (I, Good), Zrag's Mercantile. Green building 1. Owned by the diminutive Goblin Jesp Zrag, Zrag's Mercantile has a central and large building just off the market place. Carrying a wide quantity of goods, the overall quality is good to respectable: while you won't find the Lenu'r Bow here, the equipment and wares are of good quality, no bent swords here! With a not insignificant amount of traffic on the Ocean Trade Route, Jesp manages to maintain his shop with all the necessities. On occasion he has been known to trade for more exotic fare as well, but like all the Zrag Goblin merchants, you will never know what you may find. Often you find what you need without knowing you will need it. Located facing the market place, a sign with handcart hangs above the door. Three short steps open into the store, wide, well-stained planks on the floor holding shelves of equipment and gear. Behind a wide, low table is Jesp, usually cleaning some object or another and seated on a stool so he can see over the counter. Behind this table are barrels and shelves of rations and food stores. Prices are within the normal range, though Jesp does enjoy some bargaining. While he takes various currencies, he prefers to keep with the standard coinage of the Respeth Kingdom. He will direct patrons to the bank and exchange to exchange different currencies, gems and artifacts for coinage of the realm for those he won't take. He often purchases textiles, leathers and furs from the local shops and crafts them into serviceable if not great clothing. 

Wealth               Common

Prices                Normal   

Security            25% chance of something every 30 minutes

Influence           little local influence

Goods                decent but average arms, adventuring goods (ropes, pitons, packs, etc), basic clothing, whatever you may think of in an old west style of general merchandise store but fantasy flavored.

Services            directions via a range of maps, supplies

Disposition        Open to all

Favored            adventurers who do good (neutral or good aligned). Somehow the Zrag clan seems to just know what adventurers have been up to though they only imply things.

Tanner / Taxidermy (I, Fine), Durdro's Tanning Yellow building 2. Located outside the city walls near the south gate. Where Jesp gets most of his leather for the better items. Durdro is a small man with stained hands and stained teeth from the chewing tobacco he chews. He lives above the tannery, which consists of several vats, drying racks and a store room full of various salts. Some of the salts come from the Eastern Ocean, as he has a regular caravan bring him supplies. While he does not create many goods from the various leathers, the quality of the hides is very good. He may also have other creature hides available as well. Rumors from the Silver Pirate talk about a dragon hide he has been working on for months now is in a back room.

Magic Shop (I, Fine) Alore Edris' Shoppe, Red building 3. A well maintained 2 story building on the corner, the lower part of the building is dug a few feet into the earth to give tall ceilings. The height is taken up by several 12 foot tall bookshelves, with a rolling ladder to access the higher shelves. Books, containers, scrolls and interesting hats are on the shelves. The floor itself has sections for various types of clothing, from fine ball gowns to sturdy adventuring clothing. Alore Edris is a tall, thin wizard who is always messing with cauldrons of dyes and magic where she creates her magical clothing. She wears what many on town consider exotic clothing, with a silk kerchief about her neck and creased trousers, a high buttoned starched white shirt and odd looking shoes. While most of her clothing is non-magical, it is all finely made, with neat stitching of intricate designs. Clothing here is almost twice as expensive even before any magic may get applied. Some of the magical garments include clothes that are always clean and immaculate, or can repair themselves after being damaged. She also has tunics and leggings that are the equivalent of stone flesh and provide the same amount of protection. Her Cape of Innocuousness gives the wearer a +2 on being noticed. All of her clothing has a hidden tag with her signature embroidered in it. Some of the clothing is hanging by itself in mid-air with no visible means of support. Shoplifters never get far - a jacket by the door will capture any would-be thieves as they exit. How it knows they are stealing is a question asked by more than one thief!

Wealth          Prosperous 

Prices           prices start at 25% above normal and go from there based on the enchantment

Security        very high with a 5% chance of something happening every 30 minutes

Goods           excellent made clothing, minor potions (10-100 gold, priced per rules), magic scrolls and books

Services        clothing repairs, new clothes. fashion notes

Disposition    Adore welcomes most guests with a brief smile, and asks that they look around unless they are looking for something special.

Favored        magic users as she loves to chat about spells, potions and magic in the world.

Tailor (T, Poor)  blue 4 If the players cannot afford Alore Edris' shop, Keze Briarlegs shop may be more affordable. Clothing there is not particularly well made but does the job. Costs are 75-100% of the normal cost of clothing. The building is almost a hovel and not well cared for, located against the wall to the west side of town.

Butcher (I, Poor) lavender 5

General Store (G; Poor) pink 6

Tanner / Taxidermy (G, Good) orange 7

Wainwright (G, Fine) Brown 8

Rare Libations (I, Good) Maroon 9

Herbalist (G, Good) gold 10

Bank and Exchange (T, Poor) gold 11

Smith (I, Good) green 12

Textile Production (I, Poor) light blue 13

Smith (T, Poor) brown 14

Inn (G, Good)  Pink Building 15 The Nimble Priest Inn. A large 2 story building with a basement below the main floor, The Nimble Priest is run by the acolytes of the Fair Lady. Fellow clerics and acolytes get a good discount, everyone else pays fair coin for the rooms. Rooms range from a few coppers to sleep in the stable above the riding mounts, 5 silvers for a shared room and breakfast, 1 gold for a single room and breakfast. The Fair Lady is a deity none of the characters would have heard of before. 

Tavern (T, Fine) red 16 The Silver Pirate, run by half-Elves who used to be pirates on the Eastern Ocean. There will be tales of the Rainy City and Wex's Drift as well as plying the savage ocean currents. Occasionally one will hear rumors of Amazons but the other Elves will quickly make a sign and change the topic of conversation. Many of the regulars here are from the Ocean, and talk of the coastal cities they have been through, and the joys of the living in the salt air. When asked why they are here now, they look to the owner, Nomehi Wirididae, tending the bar. The half Elf has a scar across her face that disappears down her neck and she will scowl as the conversation quiets for a moment. The crew of her ship will stick by her, but she was banished from the open water to live her life near the desert sands by a curse. And so she took over Windemere Crossing almost a year ago. The tavern offers great drinks as well as some sea faring favorites. The near constant flow of merchants and caravans keeps her kegs full and spirits from across the world get here. While not as fine a wine selection as the Sarap Evi in Ceawla (see this post), there are some fine drinks and foods available. 

Hired Help (I, Poor) tan 17

Soothsayer (I, Fine) yellow 18

Doctor / Apothecary (T, Good) blue 19

House of Leisure (I, Fine) yellow 20

Bath House (G, Good) yellow 21

Barber (G, Fine) Purple 22

Stable (T, Good) line green 23 Lurbuk's, run by an Orc family. The Lurbuk family is a close-nit family, the only Orcs in a town of mostly human and half-Elves. Lurbuk is an Orc of few words. Standing near 7 feet tall and as wide as the proverbial barn door, Lurbuk has few issues with animals in his stable. Located outside the eastern game, Lurbuk's Stables consist of actually 3 stables and two houses. Two of the stables house horses, with the third houses more exotic fair and is also something of a vet clinic for his eldest daughter Rush. Horses of good or better quality are available here for sale, as well as stabling for those who want a bit more than a stall or corral for their mounts. And more than horses may be found here. While camels, mules and ox are not uncommon, there is a pen with a couple of giant goats in the back, and an elephant is almost healed in one of the out buildings. If asked and Lurbuk trusts you, he will confide that he can get other riding animals. He has another stable a few miles south in the foothills, where more of his family lives.

Saturday, November 28, 2020

Lamia's Labyrinth Solo Test Part 3

 Exiting from the 2nd room, there is a wide corridor that stretches east and west:



Our characters decide to head east, moving slowly. Fortunately the thief character did notice the spiked trap, so they managed to avoid that. In theory this trap could actually kill the characters. It also begs the question: if the people they are searching for went this way, either they noticed and avoided the trap as it was not triggered. Or perhaps it is a self-resetting trap: I suppose with weights and counter measures that could work. I do know (spoiler!) that the main trap room actually does magically reset itself. I need to figure a good reason why, perhaps. 


Now, what I think I also need to do is roll every 15 minutes or so of game time I can roll something like:

  • 1: yellow slime on the ceiling
  • 2-5: nothing
  • 6: the sound of a large, clawed creature can be heard, scritching down the corridor.
The circling corridor has a couple of traps that should be avoidable by the party, but there is always a chance of rolling horribly (which is how I normally seem to roll!).  As they may have to traverse it again, we'll assume that any traps they've noticed before they can automatically avoid on the return trip.

I still need to throw in some hints for 2 other places in this labyrinth: Tuvano, and perhaps those pyramids they spied coming into this area of the desert. But one of the helpful hints for the Tuvano adventure would be a small cache of valuables that may be identified as coming from Tuvano. And interestingly enough, Windemere Crossing does have a banker who takes in various treasures for coins that are more easily spent. So some of the jewels and whatnot will be identifiable as coming from that now ancient city. I also have some ancient maps they may find, with hint of treasures. 

If I have time tomorrow, I'll see about the big trap room. That will need to use the dry erase hex battle map to get something big enough for that as it is a fairly large room. And I'll roll for the yellow slimes and giant beasties that may be prowling, hungry for fresh food.

So far all I have needed so far were the adventurers minis and a giant spider: I may have to add an appendix for what is needed to play in this as well. Not that I am considering publishing, but eventually I may see if I can write up some generic yet interesting adventures or something.

Friday, November 27, 2020

Traveller Careers: A Bibliography

While Classic Traveller had all of 6 career paths, with Mercenary, High Guard, Scout & Merchants additional career paths within those careers got expanded out, and the characters started getting a lot more skills. The original LBB characters were still comparable in some ways, as they automatically had a weapon 0 skill in all weapons, and the skills were more broadly defined. Some of the later skills (looking at you, broker) could break parts of the system (always getting to add a DM to the actual value price table is a sure fire way to get rich quick. While I never played any characters with that skill, I do think it could be tempered based on distance from where you gained that skill: i.e., broker assume connections and knowledge of how the local economy works. I'd start reducing the skill by 1 for each system away from where it was picked up. But that is not in the rules).

Anyway, when Mongoose, and later Cepheus, expanded the career paths even more, there were even more career options. I have several books now with various career choices, and thought a bibliography may be a useful thing. My players may want to play something far outside the traditional path (hey, we're gamers, and while gaming is now a popular thing, for most of us it was far more niche than it is today: we're not "normal" to begin with. Thank goodness!)

I have an earlier post here about the careers, but pretty sure I've since bought even more books or PDFs. I am a Traveller hoarder! But I'll try and and make this list grouped and give the source material, and which version of Traveller it goes with. Many of course are available in all the versions.

I'm going to have to go through my books: I made this list a few years back but never added the source. I need to have the source listing so I can find them! And I'll probably be updating this post as I find more of the things I've got stashed away (for some reason I cannot find my SORAG book, pretty sure it is still in a bag I was taking to the game sessions for some reasons. Probably just to show off my ancient collection).

Abbreviations are:

  • CT - Classic Traveller LBB
  • MT - Megatraveller
  • T5 - Traveller 5th edition
  • Mg - Mongoose Traveller, either 1st or 2nd edition. Core rules unless otherwise noted
  • Ce - Cepheus (and I'll try and include the publisher)
  • JTAS - Journal of the Travellers Aid Society (Classic version)
  • JTAS-Mg - Mongoose version
Breaking the career choices down by military, paramilitary and other. And when there were specific sub-careers, including those. I've also got a bibliography by version at the end. For the most part, with the exception of T5, all the versions I have are mostly compatible. T5 is special in a lot of ways, but mostly compatible if you adjust skill levels (and I'll need to find that, but it was something like divide by 2 as T5 has even more skill bloat than the classic expanded character generation!

Note that these are for rules and books I actually have. There are a lot more out there I don't have. Yet.

And I've added some house rules for character generation at the end of this post.

Careers

Pre-career options

College (in most versions)

University: Mg

Medical College (somewhere I've got rules on that)

Military College: Mercenary (CT), Mg

Navy College: High Guard (CT), Mg

Other Pre-Career Options (Mg, Traveller Companion) [similar to background skills]

  • Colonial upbringing
  • Merchant Academy
  • Psionic Community
  • School of hard knocks
  • Spacer Community

Careers

Military

 Army

  • CT basic career
  • CT Mercenary (book 4):
    • Artillery
    • Calvary
    • Infantry
    • Marine
    • Support
    • Commando
  • Mg Core:
    • Support
    • Infantry
    • Calvary
  • T5 (Soldier)
    • Army
    • Operations
    • Commando
    • Technical

 Navy

  • CT basic career )book 1)
  • CT High Guard (book 5)
    • Technical Services
    • Crew
    • Line
    • Engineering
    • Gunnery
    • Flight
    • Medical
  • Mg Core
    • Line/Crew
    • Engineer/Gunner
    • Flight
  • T5 (Spacer)

 Marine

  • CT basic career
  • CT Mercenary (book 4; see above in Army)
  • Mg Core:
    • Support
    • Star Marine
    • Ground Assault
  • T5 Marine

Paramilitary / Police

Agent / Law Enforcement (world based)

  • Mg Core: Agent
    • Law Enforcement
    • Intelligence
    • Corporate
  • Mg Agent (1st edition)
    • Law Enforcement
      • Patrol
      • Special Operations
      • Customs
    • Investigator
      • Private Investigator
      • Inspector
      • Undercover Agent
    • Spy
      • Field Agent
      • Operative
      • Infiltrator
    • Analyst
      • Political Officer
      • Technical Expert
      • Handler
    • Corporate
      • Security
      • Espionage
      • Bodyguard
    • Bounty Hunter
      • Ship Tracer
      • Bondsman
      • Thieftaker
  • Ce - Investigator (Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knights Games)
    • Forensics
    • Inspector
    • Private Investigator
  • Ce - Police (Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knight Games)
    • Beat Cop
    • Patrol
    • Strike Force
  • T5 Agent

Space Patrol / Space Police (space based)

Space Patrol

  • System Guard (Ce, Foreven Worlds, Careers Beyond the Claw)
    • Crew/Line
    • Inspectors
    • Planetary Patrol
  • Space Patrol (Ce, Space Patrol, Stellagaming)
    • Secretariat
    • Investigation
    • Marshall
    • Operations
Port Authority
  • Skyport Authority (JTAS 19)
    • Administration
    • Passenger Service
    • Freight Handling
    • Ship Servicing
  • Port Authority (Ce, Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knights Games)
    • control
    • inspection
    • stevedore
  • Starport Authority (Starport Planetfall, Cargonaut Press / Apocrypha 3)
    • Port administration
    • Port Services
    • Ship Services
    • Customs/Security

Other Sort of Legal Things

Bounty Hunters
  • Manhunters (Ce, Gypsy Knights Games)
    • Bail Enforcement
    • Bounty Hunter
    • Thief Taker
    • Repossession
    • Uplift Hunters
    • Skip Tracers
    • Debt Collectors
    • Marshalls
  • Bounty Hunter (hunter, repossession, support) (???)
  • Bounty Hunters (Moon Toad Publishing - see DriveThru)

Other Career Options 

 Science/Exploration

 Scout

  • CT Book 1
  • CT Book 6: Scouts
    • Survey
    • Exploration
    • Communications
    • Detached Duty
    • Technical
    • Operations
    • Detached Duty
  • CT Scouts And Assassins
    • Technical Support
    • Surveillance
    • Exploration
  • Mg Scouts, Core 2nd
    • Courier
    • Surveyor
    • Explorer
  • Mg Scouts, 1st ed
    • Contact
    • Courier
    • Exploration
    • Special Ops
    • Survey
  • T5, Core

Scholar 

  • Mg Scholar (core)
    • Field Researcher
    • Scientist
    • Physician
  • Medical Professional (Ce, Foreven Worlds, Careers Beyond the Claw)
    • Surgeon/Nurse
    • Long term care giver
    • Physical Therapy
  • T5 Scholar
Scientist (CT, Supplement 4 Citizens of the Imperium)
Doctor  (CT, Supplement 4 Citizens of the Imperium)

Everything Else

Adventurer (Ce, Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knights Games) Hunter, Pioneer, Relic Raider

Arts (Ce, Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knights Games) artist, collector, critic

Assassin (CT, Scouts and Assassins)

Athlete (Electronic, Physical or Vehicle Sports) Foreven Worlds Careers

Barbarian (CT, Supplement 4 Citizens of the Imperium)

Belter 

  • CT Citizens of the Imperium
  • Mg Beltstrike
    • asteroid miner
    • prospector
    • worker
    • researcher
  • Ce, Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knights Games

Citizen 

  • CT - Citizens
  • Frontierist (Ce, Archeologist, prospector, Terraformer) Foreven Worlds Careers
  • Mg Core
    • corporate
    • colonist
    • worker

Clergy (Ce, Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knights Games: evangelist, minister, monk)

Craftsperson 

  • Ce, Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knights Games:  architect, tradesperson, labor
  • T5

Corporate Shipper (Ce, Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knights Games) crew, engineer, gunnery

Customer Service (Ce, Company Rep, Company Prostitute, Wait staff) Foreven Worlds Careers

Drifter/Rogues

  • CT: Other(book 1)
  • CT: Citizens - Rogue
  • Ce: Gambler (Gypsy Knight Games, Diverse Roles: casino, sports, track)
  • Mg Core Drifter
    • Barbarian
    • Wanderer
    • Scavenger
  • Ce, Organized Crime (Ce, Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knights Games: hitman, enforcer, operator)
    • Ce, Outlaws (Ce, Outlaw; Gypsy Knights Games
      • Cleaner, Driver, Drug Dealer, Forger, Hitman, Smuggler, Prisoner

    Engineer Ce, Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knights Games: Aerospace, biomedical, Chemical, Civil, Computer, Electrical, Mechanical, Space

    Entertainer (Mg, artist, journalist, performer)

    Fringe Marketer (Ce, Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knights Games: professor, teacher, tutor) black market, fence, pawnbroker)

    Gambler  Ce, Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knights Games; casino, sports, track

    Hunter CT, Citizens of the Imperium (and adventurer for Ce)

    Instructor (Ce, Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knights Games: professor, teacher, tutor)

    Merchant

    • CT - Book 1
    • CT - Book 7 
    • Mg Merchant
      • Merchant Marine
      • Free Trader
      • Broker
    Noble requires 10+ social 
    • CT Supplement 4
    • Mg (administrator, diplomat, dilettante) 

    Other (rogue: thief, enforcer, pirate)

    Politician (Ce, Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knights Games) candidate, manager, operative

    Prostitute (Ce, Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knights Games) prostitute, hetaerae, streetwalker. here for completeness?)

    Psionic (*)

    Rebel/Insurgent/Partisan - Adventure Gaming, December 1981

    Scavenger Ce, Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knights Games: junker, picker, restorer

    SORAG (Zhodani intelligence *)

    Surface Navy

    Thief Ce, Diverse Roles; Gypsy Knights Games: con artist, hacker, intruder


    Bibliography By Version

    Classic

    Book 1 Characters and Combat: Navy, Marines, Army, Scouts, Merchants, Other

    Book 4 Mercenary: Artillery, Calvary, Infantry, Marine, Support, Commando

    Book 5 High Guard: Technical Services, Crew, Engineering, Gunnery, Medical, Line, Flight

    Book 6 Scouts: Survey, Communications, Exploration, Detached Duty, Technical, Operations, Administration

    Book 7 Merchant Prince

    Supplement 4 Citizens of the Imperium: Pirate, Belter, Sailor, Diplomat, Doctor, Flyer, Barbarian, Bureaucrat, Rogue, Noble, Scientist, Hunter


    Mongoose

    Cepheus

    Diverse Roles: Adventurer, Arts, Belter, Bounty Hunter, Clergy, Corporate Shopper, Craftsperson, Fringe Marketer, Gambler, Instructor, Investigator, Organized Crime, Police, Politician, Port Authorit, Prostitute, Scavenger, Thief, Engineer

    T5

    T5 Careers (I've not gone through these enough to generate characters easily; they are included in the above list)

        Craftsman

        Scholar

        Entertainer

        Citizen

        Scout

        Merchant

        Spacer

        Soldier

        Agent

        Rogue

        Noble

        Marine

        Functionary

    Notes for Port Authority

    High Passage #3: Port Authority Handbook, Arriving in system

    High Passage #4: Port Authority Handbook, Interdicted Systems

    High Passage #5: Port Authority Handbook, Convoys

    House Rules In Character Generation

    As with most games, over the years I've added a few house rules that I can optionally use when generating characters. Mostly for players who want more agency over their characters, which seems like the antithesis of Traveller generation for me. I also use several systems when letting players generate characters. While mostly the expanded character generation, if someone wants to run through the Classic, that's perfectly fine. They do get all weapon skills at 0 as per the book (which I glossed over for years until joining up at COTI a long, long time ago & finding that rule). Most of my games are fairly rules-light anyway, and for my group it is about the role-playing more than the mechanics. It really does not matter too much if you have that 1 term barbarian playing with the 6-term extended character generated that has a bazillion skills. It is what you bring to the game. I also try to wrap my games around the characters where I can so everyone gets a chance to do something interesting.
    • an extra roll. I'll allow for 7 rolls, and you can swap out any 1 roll if you'd like. Sucks though if the 7th roll is worse than the others. I sometimes let the player try again
    • Sill rolls: you may roll then choose which table to pick your skill from. This allows for better control over what skills you get
    • swap a benefit roll for a promotion. Got this from Deluxe Cepheus, and I like the idea. Not sure how well that would play with the Noble career but that is its own can of worms
    Things I do insist on though:
    • roll stats straight. Roll for STR, DEX, END, INT, EDU, SOC in that order
    • if running Classic generation, failed survival is death. 
    There are lots of house rules other referees use as well, I'll try & post links if I get permission (so I am old school and like to get permission even for what is already public. Perhaps enough ethics courses back in college, and come to think of it, my master's program, which was liberal arts, had a lot of ethics classes. Hopefully some of it sank in!)



    Thursday, November 26, 2020

    World Building - Fantasy Trip Trade Post Windemere Crossing

     I have an awful lot of world building books and PDFs, primarily aimed at fantasy. Traveller of course has its own set of world building, from the basic building blocks built into the core rules as well as several expansions such as Grand Census. I'm slowly organizing the plethora of electronic sources into a single directory instead of scattered everywhere for my fantasy games, and then there was a black Friday sale at Nord for Sensational Settlements. Apparently I did not follow the Kickstarter from 2 years ago, but at 40% off for both the hardback and the PDF, I was sold. 

    I figure there needs to be a trading post of sorts at the south end of the path the characters are traversing. It meets up with the Eastern Ocean Trade Route, and is also the intersection to the city of Tuvano, the published adventure that I've been dropping a few hints on (and need to possibly drop some more into the Lamia's Labyrinth adventure I am so slowly play testing for the day we do get to play again). 

    There is a brief review of the contents at the end: I've never done a review before and not sure I want to go down that route. But I am certain if you search you can find reviews of Nord Games books much better than mine. My review is more of a let's go through the process and see what happens.

    Windemere Crossing

    Situated at the south end of the Path of Lost Hopes where it ends at the East Ocean Trade Route, Windemere Crossing is built up out of the remains of what was once a military outpost of Tuvano. The remains of a road still head south into the mountains to the dead city, but the majority of traffic is heading east or west along the ancient trade route. 

    Origin

    Windemere is built on the bones of an ancient military outpost, and boasts a wall that is mostly still standing around the core of the trading post. There have been a few buildings added outside the walls, most noticeably Durdro's Tannery, run by the Tanner's Guild and providing an interesting set of smells to the outpost.

    Specialty

    Known for its hospitality, the Nimble Priest Inn is a welcome sight to many travelers. Maintained by the acolytes of the Fair Lady, the inn charges reasonable rates, with a steep discount to fellow clerics and adherents of the faith. The Silver Pirate Tavern, run by a band of half-Elves thought to be pirates who have moved far inland, provides exceptional fare and drink.

    Age

    Windemere has only come into its current form in the last year or so. While the buildings have existed for hundreds of years, it was only in the last few months that a concerted effort was made to make this into a more bona fide trading post. The reason behind that is in recent history, a criminal element has taken over. Rumors abound about the half Elves being the true power behind Windemere, and deals brokered to continue their grip on the community.

    Condition

    The trading post is in good condition: the original outpost was well made and withstood the passage of the centuries with little wear. The roads in the outpost were recently cobbled, providing better drainage for the few rains Windemere Crossing receives. 

    Crowds

    Being on the East Ocean Trade Route, there is a fair amount of traffic in the east/west directions. Caravans and traders show up every few days, and rest a day or two and reprovision. Lurbuk and his family, the only Orcs in town, have a good stable and can provide mounts for a variety of purposes and people. They also take in and care for animals, his eldest daughter being a vet.

    Size

    This is a larger trading post than the population really supports. There are over 70 buildings, the majority being inside the 8 foot walls. However, several of the buildings are unoccupied or abandoned. 

    Community

    Going to combine the resident population, demographics, disposition together here.

    Windemere is sparsely populated: several buildings are not being used. When the pirates moved in, a few businesses also left, either from fear or from losing any power they may have had. Some may have been removed more forcibly. While move than half of the population are human, half Elves make up a sizable portion as well. The original group that built up the Silver Pirate Tavern seem to have more employees than would be warranted by the tavern itself. There is a smattering of other races who either live in Windemere or nearby. The residents are neutral towards newcomers, appearing a bit stand-offish. Once you get to know them, though, they are more open hearted. Frequent visitors are warmly greeted.

    Combining Law Enforcement, Leadership, Crime and Population Wealth

    Windemere Crossing has a small local watch, consisting of the sheriff, Ira Sprigbasher and his deputy Ellis Newtonson. Though the titular sheriff, he reports to Nomehi Wirididae, the former pirate captain now in charge of the Silver Pirate. The pirates have moved from the open seas to this trading post and have ousted the previous ineffectual leaders through various means. To the average visitor this would not be apparent as the trading post is run like most other trading posts: stores and services are there to help travelers as well as create some profit for themselves. It is just that a bit of everyone's profit goes to the half Elves. Despite that, there is no abject poverty: Windemere Crossing is about average in terms of the population's wealth.
    Crime does exist in Windemere, with the occasional theft or tavern brawl. When necessary, Sheriff Sprigbasher can round up a watch to aid him, either in breaking up a fight or pursuing a thief. 

    Points of Interest

    Shops

    There are 14 shops available in Windemere Crossing. The general store is a good store, run by Jesp Zrag. See this post for the Zrag Goblin family of traders. The store is well stocked for the average trader, but may have some specialty items. Additionally there are 2 tanneries, a magic shop that specializes in clothing, a second general store in much worse shape than Jesp's store, a butcher, tailor, herbalist, two smithies, textile production, herbalist, rare libations, a banking exchange and a wainwright. 

    Services

    There are 9 services, ranging from the Silver Pirate to Lurbuk's stables. A tavern, hiring hall, soothsayer, doctor, a house of leisure (and this house may vary based on who is going through the town: the father and his two boys will have a different house of leisure than my other gaming group!), the bath house and a barber.

    There is no specific place of worship, though the Nimble Priest Inn is run by acolytes and clerics, and there is a small sanctuary in the back. It is not unknown for some locations to have small sanctuaries or alters to whatever deity they may follow, but there is no central place.

    Extra Intrigue

    As previously mentioned, the trade post has been taken over by the half Elf pirates. There is tension in the air as the neighboring kingdoms seem on the brink of war. There are the occasional trouble makers that the town watch can usually take care of. An occasional raid happens, though it was more than six months ago since the last one from a band of Ogres from the west. 

    Quick Review of Spectacular Settlements

    So I really like it so far, having rolled up just one trading post. Now I need to use the Remarkable Inns and Remarkable Shops to expand out on the inn, shops and wares available. And I need to make a map to practice at that some more. 

    As per the Remarkable books, there are examples of each of the types of settlements you can create. And as per those books, they make clear that these are for inspiration: don't like what you rolled, feel free to re-roll or pick what you need. However, just like the Traveller odd worlds you can generate, part of the fun is figuring out how to make the oddities fit together. And those are some game mechanics that really help me. Part of the reason I really like Traveller, other than being a good SF game: the classic character generation can give you characters you never would have thought of. For those who have an idea in mind it is horrible, but if you let the dice roll and go from there, you can have something you may never have thought of.

    And that's what happened here in Windemere's Crossing: some of the rolls were interesting, and after I rolled on another random table from a different book for the tavern name (Silver Pirate), and another table for who the 40% population was (the half Elves), and the recent history roll of being taken over by a criminal element, I had my half Elf pirates :) And the fact that it ended up being built on the remains of a military outpost helped me to link it to Tuvano for an as yet to be run Fantasy Trip adventure. Now to re-read that adventure to see if I can add hints about that city to my new trade post and the adventure I am so slowly play testing.

    The other settlement types that can be built are trading posts, villages, towns, cities, capitols and fortresses. There are random tables for a variety of things such as names, rumors, and encounters as well as a bunch of "useful" tables that I have to poke through more. I printed off the work sheet for the trading post, and it makes for a nice summary as you go through the various tables. I'll be adding that to my notebook (yay hole punch things!) as I am slowly getting more organized for gaming. Very slowly... The sheets are easy to work with and will be a good aid when running the game as 2 pages covers the majority of what most players probably want to know. There is also room for a lot of potential game hooks.

    From my one run through with Windemere Crossing Trade Post, I have to say it is another good resource to help produce settlements that are not going to be cookie cutter copies. I am hoping the physical book is well made: the Remarkable series are physically great books, a pleasure to hold and read. Here is hoping that book is the same. 

    If anyone wants me to do longer and more in-depth reviews, let me know. I just figure there are enough sites out there that do this already, and while I've been gaming since the 70s, there are some decade+ long gaps in there so I missed out on a lot.

    So sometime soon (4 day weekend - yay!) I'll try and do a map and expand out on the Nimble Priest and a few of the shops and NPCs in town.