Sunday, March 14, 2021

Happy Pi Day! And an interesting Aslan career

Happy Pi Day everyone!

Broke out the RPGSuite to generate a character, and decided to play with the Aslan character update I got. It goes through more of the traditional Aslan character development, including the rite of passage (she got a scarred face now; one would think the medical facilities would handle that, but Mongoose, which is the rule set they are using, sees a very badly maintained medical future! And I've pretty much decided to stop getting Mongoose Traveller stuff: they just don't seem to really understand Traveller. Or perhaps I am just stuck on what I played 40 years ago...and still referee when I get the chance. Plus I like real deck plans - those they produce now are useless). I've not done the recent Mercenary Kickstarter though I do like guns for Traveller, but don't need and I'll never run a Mercenary ticket game. 

Regardless, she started off really good: in a large clan, lots of family property. And sadly the character sheet does not track that part, so that is lost. And the graphics for the Aslan are just lion-people. According to Marc Miller, no one has ever gotten them correctly drawn (and Mongoose has basically just "re-imagined" the entire species into something they were never described as. Same with the Vargr: they feel they need to put their own spin on things and basically rewrite everything and ignoring what came before. I think they just want to do Judge Dread in Space).  Sorry - seems to be my day for complaining. I blame daylight savings!

She did not have a great chance for a lot of the careers, so we started with a rogue career, a thief to steal from the rich and keep for herself. Her first term actually went well:

You become involved in a feud with a rival criminal organization. Roll Stealth or Gun Combat 8+. If you fail, roll on the Injury Table. If you succeed, gain an extra Benefit roll. Some people really need to be sent a very, VERY, strong message. With a gun in your hand and your finger on the trigger, you attempt to establish a solid line of communication whose intention will not be misconstrued. (Dex + Gun Combat) [SUCCEEDED] Sorry, you were passed over for promotion this term. It's time they start respecting you for all your hard work!

The 2nd, not so well:

There was a mishap during this term! Betrayed by a friend. One of your Contacts or Allies betrays you, ending your career. That Contact or Ally becomes a Rival or Enemy. If you have no Contacts or Allies, then you are betrayed by someone you never saw coming and still gain a Rival or Enemy. In addition, roll 2D. If you roll 2, you must take the Prisoner career in your next term. While the betrayal was bad, the authorities were as slow as ever to follow through. You escape unharmed. Mustering Out Benefit: Ship Shares [1]

But she has a ship share. Not many options were actually open to her at this point, so she becomes a drifter, a scavenger working the belts. This did not go well either:

There was a mishap during this term! You run afoul of a criminal gang, corrupt bureaucrat or other foe. Gain an Enemy.

Going with her criminal past is catching up to her. In an attempt to either commit suicide or get farther away from the Hierate, she joins the Scouts as an Explorer. That also did not go well:

There was a mishap during this term! You have no idea what happened to you, but they found your ship drifting on the fringes of friendly space.

However, in looking at all this, she could actually fit into the Big Wreck game we finished last year (and the players indicate that when we do roll back to Traveller, they would be willing to continue playing. Though we have a couple new players, and there are a few ways we can get them all together even though we are way out in the middle of the Great Rift, at the Big Wreck. 

If you recall, the Big Wreck in my version is a sleeper ship from almost a 1000 years in the past. Coming from the Solomi Rim, so full of humans and uplifts (and I really need to read more about them to get the era actually correct, and a few other things). The two new players can come from one of two places: the ship itself, and they are in very effective cold berths. It would help as they would not know about the current political universe they are now waking up into. But that would limit it to humans only as I don't think I'll be allowing uplift characters. 

The second choice is the ship that is behind the Big Wreck, a Kagekumo salvage ship. Which my still unnamed Aslan could be working for, as part of her ship share. The players were not aware of this ship as none of them were spacers and my pilot NPC failed his sensor check. Which is not really all likely but going with the plot and story.  So if I need to generate a crew for this salvage ship, she is both a pilot and not particular about how she gets her credits.

Anyway, I do need to get a proper Aslan name, but until then, here's the pilot of the salvage ship:

876872, age 32, female Aslan, Thief, Drifter, Scout

Pilot (Ships Boat-1, Pilot-1), Recon-1, Athletics (Dexterity-1), Deception-0, Flyer-0, Gun Combat-0, Language-0, Stealth-0, Streetwise-0.

Speaking Anglic with a hard to understand accent, she is quick to anger and would be one who shoots first. Piloting the salvage ship, she rarely talks of her past, and the fearsome scar across her face tends to dissuade people from asking. She has a planetary governor as an enemy, and an eccentric scientist as a rival. 


A Kagekumo class scavenger ship, 5000 tons. I'll need to work up the stats for that. It has these big scaffolds that can be used, and drones and all sorts of fun things. I'll try & work on the stats this week.




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