Solo Traveller, Where Art Thou?

It has been a while since my last post for my solo game of exploration in MTU. I do want to get back to it but as I am also currently running 2 games (the Apex game and the Fantasy Trip Game) I really don't have the time to work on that game much. Add in that work is getting pretty busy for an end of the year deadline (you may think that is plenty of time but we're migrating a complex system from one platform to another, and both are very complex. And we don't want to break the existing processes, nor have people have to do double data entry. So it is complicated.)

But in reading through some other blogs, I found this post from the Role Play Rescue site (which as he does some Traveller posts that look good, I'm adding to my blog list; I got this one via alea iactanda est site which has my site linked. It is always interesting to see who visits and where from. Blogs are the new web rings in a lot of ways (and I miss the Traveller web ring and all the really interesting sites it used to have. The web was supposed to be a decentralized system but it is now mostly in the hands of a few large corporations. And all the sites look the same for the most part. But I am just being curmudgeonly...)

That post, to get back on target here, added luck points so he could override the rolls. As the last few games have have that sort of mechanism in it, I think I'll allow myself some of those points as well. I think it will make the story telling a bit more flexible. Which brings up a question: would I do something similar to other games I run that don't have that mechanism in place already?

And the answer is no: The Fantasy Trip & Traveller can be cinematic, but that was not the original intent of the games in my view. They are meant to be deadly, for the players to track their resources and not do stupid things. And for games like that, I like that approach. I still need to print up and play an even more grim game, The Blackest of Deaths. It is even more deadly. Somewhere on one of the blogs I read it was mentioned to play your characters like a rental: go fast & go wild. Or something to that effect. And for TFT & Traveller, it is pretty easy to generate characters. Integrating them into the current game can be tricky, but there are always ways. Gamers, we're very creative!

(and I just realized I have some scenery that looks just like that tree!)

the Runt in his dreams, riding the zombie werewolf

And it turns out that we're down a player for the Monday game, and the Sunday group can't make it today. So suddenly I do have some time! But sadly I will catch up on a couple of other things, such as making the battle map of the German encampment. I do have a 3 day weekend coming up, and plan on taking at least part of a day off soon as I am reaching a snark level that may get me in trouble (one of my sisters takes snark days off on occasion. I feel I am nearing my limit as well!)

A note on the Monday game: we were down a player 2 weeks ago as well but that was during a travelling session: not a whole lot was likely to happen so I felt it was okay to press on. We're now at the Nazi base near the temple, and the missing player is the German doctor. Seeing how Ilsa would probably have an outsized role here, I was not comfortable with running her character through the session. And this session would probably introduce the big bad. I think it will take 2 more sessions probably to finish this current arc.  

I did give a few things we could do:

1. play anyway, and either I or another player take up the good Fraulein's role
2. play anyway, but throw in a side mission / distraction so that the meeting of the Germans is postponed a week (i.e., the Nazon, which turned out to be really close to Nazi as pointed out by the players & entirely missed by me! but that does potentially lead to some other ideas. Regardless, I just pictured in my head as the group is watching the Nazis. Isla, being a Raider and never surprised, looks over to see a Nazon or two sitting back with their dinosaurs, watching the Nazis as well.)
3. roll up characters for the next game, which has yet to be decided
4. do a 1 shot. Either another Brass Rings adventure of sorts, or another GM steps up (and there has been volunteers)
5. entirely skip and take an evening off.

Anyway, off to make a battle map!