Big Wreck - Session 3, the Heist

Session 3 did cover the week in jump. The players observed the patterns and behaviors of crew and passengers, particularly around Zandra. They found there were at least two, probably more, additional agents of some sort keeping constant surveillance on her stateroom as well as her. She followed a pattern of behaviors, going to the pool each morning and the gym, then gambling and strolling about the Promenade Deck. They also discovered, that after observation, Zandra wore some sort of wrist sheath, almost a bracer, that appeared to hold the device. And she wore it the entire time, except, it turns out, during her morning swims.

The corridor around her stateroom was under constant watch, but a new friend of the Commander, an ex-Navy Captain, had the adjoining room. With the additional gifts found in the Traveller's staterooms, they had some additional tools for the heist.

Handprint Collector: a square of smart-cloth that can lift and reproduce finger prints. Usually found with forensic personnel in various police agencies. It comes with a small hand computer that can store the prints as well as reset the smartcloth to show the prints. There are thermal sensors as well that can act to record and recreate the thermal properties if the print is lifted soon enough.  Cr450 but restricted by law to police and investigators only.

HandPrint Glove: The handprint glove may be used with handprint collector computer to simulate the handprint of most lifeforms. It also comes in Alsan fitted gloves. Simulates the print and thermal properties as well, allowing for bypassing many biometric security systems

Area Scanner The area scanner looks like a large tablet with a translucent viewing area. Using a combination of ultra-wide frequencies, thermal, acoustic and radio, it can 3D map an adjacent room through most materials. While it cannot penetrate hull or armored bulkheads, most interior walls in buildings and spacecraft may be penetrated. It can track lifeforms as long as they are above the ambient temperature of the area they are in. Illegal on any LL3+ world, it is often used in police and military forces. It has 18 hours worth of recording time, and can burst-transmit the data for a range of about 2 kilometers, less in densely urban areas.

Several days go by as they get better observations. Rand sneaks into the ship's laundry and manages to steal a steward and security officer's uniform using his steward ID card, and bypassing some of the biometric system. Santiago and Kelya get into the Captain's room while he is out gambling away his retirement funds, and get a deep scan of Zandra's stateroom, finding the room safe in the wall between the fresher and the seating area.  They manage somehow to get back out without getting noticed, though a huge Aslan sneaking about is always an interesting image.

By now we're in mid-week, 3 days left in jump. They decide to see if they can make the switch to give themselves a bit of a buffer if it takes more than one time. During Zandra's morning swim, they decide to make the attempt. While Kelya, wearing the security officer uniform, distracts the observer, Santiago and Rand, using Santiaga's Asaln-sized fingerprint system, gain access to Zandra's room. Knowing that the steward that normally cleans the room while she swims will notice the room has been entered again so will not do a cleanup, they get to the safe. Using Santiaga's security card override, they easily get into the safe and make the switch. Getting back out unobserved, Kelya finishes his distraction and they all meet back up in Santiago's stareroom.

The remainder of the jump goes by, and they come out in Antquity space. A few leisurely hours of majestic flight and they arrive at the highport. Declining the King Richard's shuttles, they book a private ships boat to get access to the L7 Bar. The L7 is the rendezvous for the handoff. They make contact, pie-based passwords and counter passwords are exchanged, and we're left hanging out at the L7.

So, the heist was successful. But there needs to be a bit of combat, and bar fights are always appreciated by everyone but the bar owners. We've decided we may use the Snapshot rules for combat. What I plan on doing (and there will be another post) is see if I can develop a 1 page combat summary/flowchart for both Snapshot and Mongoose rules. Giving us a cheat sheet may be useful.

I do have some plans based on the poster plans for the L7 Bar and Landing pad.

Plans are for the next few posts: combat overview and comparison of Snapshot vs Mongoose, and maybe a post of Traveller character advancement that came up during the week (the default is character advancement is pretty much better toys, but there are always alternatives). And of course, a Fantasy trip post should be soon as well as we should be playing this weekend.