Montca - A Different Image With Mechanics

 Trying something a little different. And thinking it would fit in my half-sheet sized referee shield/display/whatever they are I got way back in the Schlock Mercenary RPG Kickstarter (which they also offered as an add-on in the XDM book KS. Which why yes, I did back).

So we have a lot of the basic stuff, then a really long extended UWP. Essentially I took in the additional security profile and starport activity index from Mongoose's JTAS, and threw in a bit more. I need to recheck my math for the 100D travel time (and reformat that table to make it fit better). Pretty sure I did the math right, but it has been (cough) years since I've had to deal with math outside of writing software for accounting stuff. Using the old formula from book 2:

D is in meters, so for a size 6 world that is 6000 miles in diameter, or 9,654 km in diameter, or 9,654,000 meters, then x 100 for 100 diameters, and our acceleration is 10m/s for G1, that gives (loads up the calculator) 5.45 hours. 6G gets there in 2.23 hour. So you save 3 hours each way with a 6G ship versus 1 1G ship. 

Which is why I have that chart there! Once I get my math right (and I think I got it all straight!) Anyway, I don't want to be figuring this on the fly in games so figure that handy chart will come in handy.

Looking over the extended UWP:

A639993-C 200 A4-V S7D5-8 PAA-S SAI 9x3/5-10-20-30

We have the standard UWP, then the PGB for population, gas giant and belt adjustments. So no gas giants nor asteroid belts in this system and a population around 2,000,000,000. The S7D5-8 shows that the planetary law level is 7 as per the UWP, but near-space to the 100 diameter limit is really, really high at D, but past that is a 5. The PAA-S indicates that the planetary and orbital ports are both class A with standard amenities. The SAI (Starport Activity Indicator) are actual die rolls and percentages: roll 9 die and multiply by 3 for the number of ships at or near the port as your players show up, and the percentages are 5% are bulk carriers (50K tons+), 10% large freighters (10-50K tons), 20% medium freighters (5-10K tons), 30% small freighters (1-5K tons) and the rest are incidental ships such as the adventurer's ship. Obviously this breakdown can be adjusted to a smaller ship universe, back when the Kinunir was considered a pretty big ship.

So this means when players show up in system, we have several rolls for each visit. First at the security, if they jump outside the 100D range, a roll of 5 or less means there will be some radio communication from the authorities. Within the 100D there will always be security checks, including a boarding by customs inspection. While on the world, an 8 or less means that the security and law are a bit more enthusiastic in their response to issues. The normal law level of 7 is the daily check: 7 or less and they may be pulled over for a routine check,

For ship traffic, we roll 9 dice & multiply by 3 for the number of ships. 39x3 indicates when the ship comes in there are 117 ships (this is a high-tech system with an A port). Of the 117, 6 are huge 50,000 ton freighters, 12 are 10-50,000 ton freighters, 24 are 5-10,000 ton freighters, 35 are 1-5,000 ton freighters, and the remaining 41 ships are sub-1000 ton ships. Some of these could be cruise/passenger liners if those exist in your Traveller universe. So we have a pretty busy port apparently (and quite possibly approaching the GURPS Far Trader level of ships). 

We also know how long it will take the ship to go from the 100D to orbiting the planet. Once there, I usually end up doing some sort of roll for how long it takes to get permission and a spot to land. Pretty sure there was yet another article about this, and I know several threads over on COTI with a lot of suggestions as well.

Since this system also supports a class A orbital port, those larger ships are going to be in parking orbits near that high port, so there will probably be significant shuttle traffic as well. This helps us paint a visual image of just how busy this particular port is.

Then throw in starport encounters (which I need to break out in the solo installment - maybe tomorrow as my Sunday game has been postponed due to Halloween) and we have quite a number of things going on.

So a bit of prep ahead of time for each system that can be visited (and eventually I have a library of systems) and I can be a bit more confident about getting from jump to the planet.

And I am hoping to get my Sunday group to play Traveller as well. Not sure how will that will go as they are more fantasy than science fiction, but I can hope!

And finally, as per a previous post about the security, a good bit of this came from the Mongoose version of the Journal. More than half was simply re-doing the original JTAS articles, but there were some new things in there that are useful. And apparently, with the revised 2nd edition, they finally dropped those really stupid orthographic deck plans for flat 2D plans you can actually, you know, use. And there is a KS for the next set of journals. Which, though I really don't like where Mongoose has gone (it seems to me they are just redoing the same stuff over and over again, and I'm not impressed by the physical quality of the books as mine are falling apart and barely used!) I will still probably back. I am a sucker for that sort of thing, though I'll no longer get any of their adventures. And I've yet to use those giant deck plans of the cruiser. And not really satisfied with those to tell the truth: there was obviously a lot of copy/paste going on and the two halves of each module seem to simply be mirror images. And I wonder about the deck heights for some of those that carry shuttles. But perhaps I just need to spread them back out on the floor and wander those corridors again.

The Fantasy Trip: The Cave Not Taken

Well, now I cannot complain about my players skipping over parts of my semi-plans: the other players & I just did that to our Sunday game. 

We had just left the Boogle country after a longer rest than expected after taking care of the Boogles various threats. Being Prootwaddles, their threats were generally not as bad as the could have been. Tis was mostly a period to catch up on some hit points and prepare for the rest of the journey to Edge City. Our plan was to meet up with the Crimson Blade and report on what we found in that ravine. The first night out, Lurbgug took first shift and nothing much happened. Prentum's second watch encountered what appeared to be the Grim Reaper. Edging around the fire, he nudged Lurbgub awake, only to have the apparition disappear. The rest of his night did not go well, and sleep was not very forthcoming. 

Thunk's watch heard footsteps or something wandering the perimeter of the campsite, yet he never discovered what it was. After a restless night sleeping, Prentum recognized the prints as coming from a Sasquatch. Probably the one that stole Thunk's spiked shield a few days back. Deciding we still needed to get to the city, we continued the journey. Halfway through the day, the cries of something in pain caused us to go off the trail and through the woods. Seeing a giant elephant beast attacking a Sasquatch we decided to help the poor hominid as he was trying to crawl away, crying pitiful sounds. While Thunk and Lurbgub got behind the attacking beast, Prentum readied his bow. The battle was over quicker than expected, though Prentum's arrow had little effect against the beast. While I can shoot twice due to having a high dexterity, those arrows only do 1d+2, so against larger creatures or those with a thick hide, not always particularly useful. I will have to move up to a bigger bow: the light crossbow does 2d damage and with my high dexterity I can still shoot every turn. So perhaps I'll move my strength up next stat increase the one more point I need for that. 

After killing the elephant beast, we followed the trail of the bleeding Sasquatch, who seemed to be recovering a bit as he did become bipedal after crawling on the forest floor for a bit. We found his cave, and just inside was a pile of shiny things: we found his stash. And Thunk found his shield! Now, we could have followed the Sasquatch further into the cave: we were all at full strength, and it was what the GM thought we would do. Instead, we returned to the beast, cut off those giant tusks and continued to Edge City. We missed the apparently planned cavern delve and any potential treasure (and dangers) to be found in the lair of the elusive Sasquatch. We also talked about perhaps the 'Squatches have a natural blur effect, which is why they are so hard to track down and see. We also use a Lego Sasquatch that ironically carries a camera, and has been nicknamed the Flashsquatch.

Once at the city by the end of the day, we went to the market to see about selling our Gargoyle bladders and ivory tusks. We found a merchant and traded the gall bladders for health potions (which are really expensive at 15 gold each. We did a bit of haggling, and eventually also sold the tusks for the remainder of his health potion stock, including 3 "big boy" health potions (these do 1d4 of healing, and I introduced them in my games using a small bottle that has a d4 in it so we can roll that. See - I like props!)

Getting directions to the Crimson Blade, we find that guild hall and the Guildmaster. Reporting what we found, we also gave him the map with the 4 X's. Explaining that we had met Cornelius the Black Spider at one of the X's, the other was the ravine where we had somehow possibly died and come back to life (and Prentum still has this urge to seek out and destroy Cornelius the Black Spider though the others have not mentioned that at all). Given a place to stay for a few days while the Guild reviews both the map and our report, we rest that night. Though Prentum's rest is disturbed by the re-appearance of the Reaper. Who again says nothing and disappears before his eyes again.

Next morning, we are given the task of clearing out the sewers of whatever that is that is killing stray dogs. Which is coming full circle as my second game with these guys was a sewer adventure. Sadly I have to wait a year for the sewer Kickstarter stuff to show up! The smelly adventure had us following the sewers, eventually finding a stream of blood in the effluence. Following that we encountered 3 fish people. We managed to kill them off with less trouble than expected: we had some good hits and Prentum switched to his short sword for close combat. While the damage is similar to the bow if considering the total, as the sword does it in 1 roll versus 2 he is far more likely to actually damage his foes! In the midst of this, a giant turtle creature attacked us from the rear! Fortunately Prentum managed to kill the fish thing in front of him, and turned before that creature attacked. While Lurbgub was finishing off the last of the fish creatures, Thunk moved to help Prentum. I actually managed to roll a 3 on 3d6 - critical hit! Triple damage! Woot! And sadly, Lurbgug tends to roll like I normally do, though he did not drop or break any weapons this session, there were a few close calls!  But it was exciting to roll 3 ones! After that combat, he put on his blur ring as the continued in the sewers. A larger chamber had what appeared to be a pool of yuck. Tossing a rock in, we saw a fin broach the surface, then were attacked by a shark creature (the GM had bought a lot of interesting minis and as all good RPG players do, is bringing them into play!). That battle caused a bit of damage to our tank Lurbgub but not as much as you would think. We managed to kill that beast, and drinking his "big boy" potion, managed to roll a 1. We believe the merchant short-changed us! Fortunately the shark creature had about a 12 DX so missed almost as much as he hit. A few good hits could have wiped any of us out.

Finding nothing else up this route, we returned to the fork in the sewers and it dead-ended in another cavern. While looking at the smaller cave to the rear, two strange creatures dropped from the ceiling and attacked. We forgot to look up. Never forget to look up! Prentum ducked back into the smaller tunnel to face the one that dropped to attack him, while Thunk took on a giant turtle beast of some sort, and Lurbgug attacked the one attacking Prentum. The battle took a bit more time, and it took all three of us to take down the turtle beast.

We dragged the shark thing back to the mouth of the sewer, and that's where we left this game off. 

\We had gone off the planned adventure so the GM made up the market and sewer bit. We're trying to get the boys to do a bit more role playing in the game, but it has not been easy. Really thinking if I can get my other friend to get vaccinated, he would make for an excellent 4th player as he is not only a great GM but also a great player. Having a bit more role playing may help them play their characters a bit more. But we'll see - there are moments when they really get into it and we all had a great time.

We forgot about experience points, so perhaps this week the GM will come up with some of that, and maybe enough to bump Pretnum to ST 12 so I can get a light cross bow. 2D damage will do a bit more damage than the 1d+2. Though we'll have to see if that quiver will take a crossbow bolt instead of an arrow - I can't remember if that quiver is attuned to a specific arrow or any arrow (or crossbow bolt) put into it will work. We'll figure that out when we get there,

Apex Session 12: On the River

Waking up at the base of the volcanic plateau, our heroes are on the south side of the river that leads back to Hafen Zweite and their sky yacht. Starting down the river, they hear German voices from across the river. Assuming it could be more Nazi's, they move further into the jungle as they make their way down river. The sound of a traditional farming song, and the voices of children also singing, did not make them feel any more secure. Even the sound of what sounded like a wooden cart and the slap of leather on hide did nothing to entice the group to even see what was on the other side of the river. They did miss seeing the Amish using dinosaurs as draft animals pulling a cart piled high with hay.

As they moved close to their goal of the Apex Queen, Ilsa noticed they were being tracked by 4 ornithomimus (ornithimimu? ornithomimuses?). Realizing they were both outnumbered and quite possibly out-weaponed (there are a lot of teeth there!) they took to climbing trees. While Archie managed a springy leap up, and Dr. Tong managed adeptly as did Ace, Ilsa, from years of smoking perhaps, had a more difficult time. After the 3rd die roll failure, Ace mananged to pull her up as the 4 dinos circled the trees. For the next 2 hours.

Not wanting to alert any Nazi scouts with gun shots, they stayed in the trees until the dinos decided that easier food could be found elsewhere, and they wandered away.

Moving along, they got to the bend where they could just see the Apex Queen. On the other side of the river, about 35-40 feet wide at this point. This should have been within reach of Archie's newly updated spring boots. However, while we did double the distance he could leap, anything over the original 30 foot distance required an action check. Which he failed. And failed re-rolling using his grit point. And failed his save roll. Fortunately, he did have a rope around him, and the crew managed to pull him across where he discovered that his landing had managed to break the left boot. Throwing the boot at the river in anger, it was swallowed by some river dinosaur immediately. Deciding to throw the other boot at the dinosaur, he had a critical failure. The boot flew past Ilsa and did not manage to break Tong's new Army camera. Note that these are my normal rolls as well - why I threw dynamite in the western game as it is hard to miss with exploding sticks of TNT. 

Replacing his now missing boots with sturdy boots that no longer allow him to leap, using a grappling hook and rope he actually managed an excellent throw and got the rope across the other side up a tree. All four managed to cross the river unscathed and not dropping anything, and Archie started on repairs in the Queen. What with the banging and stuff, Ace and Ilsa heard some rustling in the jungle and then Jungle Girl showed back up, eager for Archie, chocolate and some companionship other than her two dinosaur companions. 

an unlikely place for Jungle Girl

Getting the boat together and seaworthy took a bit more time, and they stayed one more night at this spot, leaving in the morning to get past the German fort and back to the port town of Hafen Zweite.

And this is where we left the group. They again managed to bypass a small side-trip full of Amish and pies, and only managed to lose Archie's boots in the progress so far. There was no combat in this evening's play mostly due to trying to be careful and knowing that they are usually out-gunned. I do want to get a bit of combat in for that pulpy feel, so we have at least one more chance as they pass the fort in the morning. We'll let the dice decide again as they go past: it may be similar to the movie African Queen when they got past Fort Shone - they just get on by. 

Next session may be the last for this particular arc - we'll see how they do, and if they get the Apex Queen back to Charlie and Rosy in one piece. And I do have some ideas for an epilogue assuming they get there. I've not decided if Jungle Girl will go with them or not - we'll let the dice decide next session. It could get a bit awkward, but if she follows along, I may have to get her vocabulary above the single ungawa she currently uses for everything. 

The Fantasy Trip: Back from the Dead

Wanting to continue the game he had started, and then managed to do a TPK, our fledgling GM and his wife came up with a brilliant solution. Through a sad story, we learn of Giesla, outside the Mage's Guild in the Elemental City of Athukthad, having sold all he had left for a major wish. Revenge against the Black Spider who had killed his entire family. The backstory is epic, and even moving. We're trying to get his wife to play as I think she would really bring in some in-depth gaming, but alas, so far she is not playing with us. But she and her husband came up with the backstory, and Thunk, our turtle man, Lurbgub, our Orcish brute, and Prentum all find themselves alive again. The raven about to eat Thunk's eye was not pleased at our sudden return to life. 

Seeing the Lizard Wizard involved in what looked to be a resurrection of one of the gargoyles, we all snuck up behind him and actually managed to kill him off, having surprise. Lurbgub took a few extra stabs in the corpse. Just to make sure. The wizard of course assumed correctly we were all dead. However, the demon's greater wish brought us all back to avenge the Black Spider. Which was of course the vampire from the first adventure day. We did not talk much about coming back from the dead, but Prentum did say there must be a reason. Waking up from death is not something any of us expected. I'll get to play my cigar smoking Dwarf in some game.

Rifling through the dead wizard's meager belongings, we find that he had a ring of stone flesh (which is why my arrows could not do anything against him) as well as a ring of dexterity. Prentum ended up with the golden dexterity ring, bumping his DX to 18. Now he can shoot twice per round. Though I do want to bring up his natural dexterity so that in the event he loses that ring he can still shoot twice a round. Then he can sell off that ring for some good gold. Plus this also puts him at 5 magical items: the enchanted leathers that give him a +3 protection for 5 total, the necklace of flight, gloves of heat resistance, the blur ring and now the ring of dexterity. TFT allows only 5 magical items to be active at a time. Hmm, and the quiver of replenishment makes 6...I forgot and will have to choose things now!

In the shack at the end of the crevasse, we find 3 healing potions along with a map of the area with 4 X's. Where we had  almost captured the vampire was one of the X's (it helps that at least two of us have literacy, though not sure if that directly relates to be able to read maps).

And this took place near Hamor, where my original Fantasy Trip game took place with my other group. There is a pear farm there where peary is made and shipped down to Edge City.

I'll see about posting the entire story, but want to check with them to make sure it is okay to post it first. It's about a 4 page story and does make a good introduction to a lot of things. And it is well written and works well for a lead-in to adventure of revived characters!

Heading back to Hamor to get a rest and recover, we come upon the Prootwaddles we had brushed aside earlier, Boogle Bob and Boogle Bill. To make up for our rudeness, as well as get a good rest, we helped kill the giant alligator that been eating the Boogles. Apparently we were in the Boogle Kingdom as they liked to think about it. After having a some good gator and meeting Boogle Betty & Boogle Bess, we rested a few days with the Boogles when they said there was a Boogle Bane snatching and eating the Boogle Babies. Yes, the GM had a good voice for these Prootwaddles, and yes, we alliterated a great deal as it was a good deal of fun. Turns out the Bane was a giant bird, of which he brought along a huge mini of a hawk - it must have been 8" from wing tip to tip! We did manage to kill this beast, though it turns out that Lurbgug, who loves eating chicken, is not so fond of giant chickens eating Lurbgug! He was not much help in our endeavor. Though he had no issue eating the giant bird afterwards at the Boogle Bash. 

And then we headed back to Hamor, each of us with full bellies, all our strength, rations for days upon days, and a map to hunt down Cornelius the Black Spider. Which will ultimately fulfil Giesla's wish, just not in the way he thought it would. And we've no idea as characters about this wish, but it is driving the story and I'm making Prentum feel it is the right thing to do. 

It was a fun afternoon. Though now I worry that the GM is swinging too low: as players we just need to be a bit more judicious about how we attack our foes, or even if we do. The Fantasy Trip is a lot deadlier than most RPGs (well, Traveller can be as bad as you can die in character generation!). Regardless, it was a lot of fun and we're slowly building up our characters a bit more: I think he should have given Lurbgub some extra XP for his sudden fear of being on the wrong side of the chicken rotisserie - playing up a character like that is what it is all about.

Now to see where I stashed the book for Ankh-Morpork as it has that giant map which is our Edge City. It is buried in the bookcase somewhere, behind all the boxes of minis I still need to figure out how to organize so I can find them. And get all my maps of my game world into a single place: I have them scattered in too many folders to find! Bane of my existence: order in the chaos. Been trying to figure out how for years, and nothing really works for me. Making me think it is entirely me. I even have this issue with writing software: where do you stick the various things? So yeah, must be on me entirely.

Hamor is that little town north of Edge City, and is the location of the Pear Farm above

And (if you get down this far!) I have three more followers! I have no idea when that happened, but hey, thanks for following! I know this is not as much Traveller as I originally intended but I do enjoy other games and did not feel like creating a new blog. I do tag most of the entries (which I need to prune a bit I believe) so things are sort of searchable. I'll probably do another Traveller post soon: started yet another view of Montca and trying to incorporate a few of the things from a few of my other posts into something cohesive and hopefully useful at the table (or at least the virtual table).

Apex Session 11: Sometimes it is better to run away

The characters all leveled up, gaining new traits. Our gadgeteer actually turned down the atomic ray gun to double his sprinting boots. So he can now leap up to 60' and I think 20' straight up. However, the caveat with that is it is no longer an automatic feat for anything over the standard 30/10 foot leaps. Our resident smoker Ilsa chose sharpshooting, making her a crack shot with her Mauser. The academic has been studying the scrolls that were like a Rosetta stone, and while not quite fluent in Linear B, he can read and write a bit of it. Ace, our adventurer, now is a die hard character, meaning once a day, he can come from a 0 hit points to 1.  

After we got that all straightened out, the group heads back to the center of the badlands, an ill Jungle Girl managing the trip. A few miles from where they land they do see a dead triceratops. This puts them close to dead center in the badlands, and they have quite the lengthy discussion on which way to go: back north to where they left our feral child's dinosaurs, or back to the river, to see if the dinos had returned home.

Tong makes some pictures on the ground and they seem to make sense to her, and she starts her call of the jungle. It is still ungawa, just louder and, well, louder. Ilsa, our raider who is never caught by surprise (a nice class attribute), noticed a few miles off what looked to be 3 people on dinosaurs watching. The group hides a bit while Ace starts moving to the group, but coming from a diagonal to keep the original location hopefully secret. Two of the trio head towards Ace, and he can see that they are the Nazon, our triceratops herders they bypassed before. Only they don't know the name of the people (see this post for a description of them). Meanwhile, Jungle Girl is still yowling, so hiding does not seem to be really effective. Ace and the two Nazon get within shouting distance, and they dismount.

After some gesturing and an entire lack of communication, the group decides that they are not going to get eaten or attacked, so the eventually follow the duo back to the third rider, who appears to be wearing a hat or crown big enough to make Ilsa quite jealous.

The follow this group back, and the trio point to the dead triceratops. Up close, they could see it was full of bullet wounds. A bit of communication does seem to clear the air that it is not our adventurers' fault, so the group continue on and end up at a camp. 

The village has leather tents, more wigwam style, and some cook fires going. Everyone gets some food, and there is a bit of gift giving. Correctly thinking that the woman in the head dress is the one in charge, Tong manages to get Ilsa to give her Archie's sword. The woman seems quite pleased by the gift. She was not so pleased when Tong wrote some Linear-B in the dirt after (finally) noticing that she had some markings on her clothes in that language. And in hindsight, now I wish I had made that actually work as a way of communicating: while Tong can do basic read/write of Linear-B as part of the the level up, he can't speak it as the phonetics may or may not correlate well to the written language that he has been studying the last couple of weeks. 

Anyway, everyone gets their fill, and they are offered a space to sleep. The first two shifts go quietly, but Isla heard, just as dawn was breaking, the distinct sound of a diesel engine heading to the camp. Alerting the group as well as the Nazon, they all get packed up pretty darn quickly. Not long after that, they can see a Nazi half-track with a squad of soldiers as well as something Ilsa was concerned about: weaponized dinosaurs!

Being severely out-matched. the group decides to flee. They head back to the east, to get to the river. Behind them, they start to hear the sounds of guns as well as a stampeding herd of triceratops. There was carnage behind that they did not see as they were moving as fast as they could away. Perhaps the players, after I talked about a TPK in another game, decided wisely to not face up to a dinosaur carrying a large caliber weapon. Though honestly there was a chance they could have taken them. Perhaps not a large chance though!

By the end of the day, they were back in sight of the tower. Jungle Girl stopped, and then took off. Running to her were her two dinosaur companions! Everyone got met back up, and Archie managed to convince our feral woman to go back to the jungle. Along with a handful of chocolate. Deciding to not stay at the tower in case the Nazi's followed them, they followed the path Jungle Girl took to get down the precipice to end up at the jungle. Finding a good spot to stay, and with the smell of pie wafting through the jungle, our group settles in for the evening.

And here is where we stopped that session. I've a few ideas (and yes, there was a pie aroma. A running joke about liking pie so of course it needs to be in the game) for going forward. In theory we could finish the game at a good spot in the next session, but I think it will actually be 2 or even 3 more. But we'll see how it all goes. They are almost a week of hiking through the jungle if they follow the river to Hafen Zweite. Getting the boat repaired, and back to Charlie Allnut, will take a few days off that. But the end-game for this game is getting the boat back. Then we may be able to continue the adventures, following Tong's map to the center of the Earth for the next adventure. But we have to get back first!

Apex Session10: Cleanup at the temple

 After much discussion, they called in the army from Fort Allen. Ace and Archie had made previous trips there, usually miscellaneous supply runs, the occasional Army officer who may have been a been late in getting back from Cape Coleman, It took a fair amount of persuading to get Jungle Girl on board the giant metal flying thing, but once on there, she...well, actually got airsick. They hauled everyone out of the temple area, include the two German flight technicians. 

On the way back, they were trying to figure out how to get Jungle Girl back to her jungle: civilization was not the place for her. Ace was thinking about bailing via parachute on the way back, but in looking at the maps, Fort Allen was almost due north of the temple, and the jungle and badlands where they left Jungle Girl's two dinosaurs was to the west. He was talked down from taking over the plane and having the US Army become an adversary to the group. While I commend the comic book thinking, my games generally have repercussions for that sort of thing. Though it would really change the arc of the game a good deal. Though Ace may not be able to get back to his sea plane if that had happened, there would have been a lot of different adventures than I was originally envisioning!

Landing at the base, they off-loaded the Germans, and Ilsa knew she could never go back to Wissenschaftliche Kreidestation, nor could Dr. Mader. There was talk about Project Paperclip, but technically that happens at the end of WWII, not a few years before it starts. But Dr. Mader was the poster child for that, so she will remain at the base to be debriefed before heading to the USA to work for the Army scientists. She left her atomic ray gun in Archie's capable hands.

As Captain Mills of the Army base owes them, he is transporting them to an area in the badlands where a plane can land. It is about in the middle, so they can look to either direction to see if Jungle Girl's dinos are still near the crevasse, or have moved back to the jungle. It has only been about 2 days since they left.

I also bumped everyone up a level at the Fort (hey, it was a very good debriefing!), and now realize I need to update the character sheets for those 2 players who do not have the book or PDF of the game. And done. And everyone also gets a new trait, so we'll have some discussion on that. Basically, for me, they have achieved the primary goal: destroyed the temple and the crystals (well, they actually have the crystals) and keep the Nazi's from getting them.

Also hard to believe we've had 10 sessions, 11 counting session 0 way back when. There is at least 1 or two more in this game to get to a good spot as they want to get Charlie Alnut's boat back to him, Jungle Girl back to the jungle (though she may have other ideas). And they've yet to meet Rosie, Charlie's wife. Not that I can do Bogart & Hepburn justice, but they are who these two are after getting back from Africa. But I have several ideas for adventures in getting Jungle Girl back, and I really want to have dino-riders in here as that was why we really started this game, and oddly no one picked that class. So, we do need to have them in there. And as they have yet to meet the Nazon (which is oddly similar to Nazi but I was not thinking that when I used a random name generator to pick a name. Promise!)

There are also many more games to be had: Dr. Tong has a map that may lead him to the center of the earth, those coins are still a mystery (and one of the players came over briefly, and I managed to at least show him the physical coins. I really do miss face to face, but we're still not there for this group). And of course, the adventure of getting a feral child back to the jungle where she is apparently well-equipped to stay alive. So it may well be more than two sessions, though I am looking forward to playing my centaur Athagio of the Cephates Herd of the Perry Fields.

And yes, the recap is a bit brief - it has been a week since that session and I've not been keeping notes, so this is coming from my memory. I need to write things up the next day, but unfortunately work is getting in the way of playing! And my memory, well, where was I again?

World Building - Windmere Continues to Grow

Seeing as my group will be soon (probably!) seeing Windmere, I figured I could get back to a bit more world building. While I am actually getting to play, the GM has introduced several characters and a guild into the shared world we're building. And I thought, hey, I can add a guild (and pretty sure I have a book on guilds eventually showing up as I seem to collect world building books!).

Previous posts to Windmere are here:

• https://traveller-ct.blogspot.com/2020/11/world-building-windemere-crossing.html
• https://traveller-ct.blogspot.com/2020/12/windemere-crossing-people-and-keyed-map.html
• additional characters generated that may be found there:
• https://traveller-ct.blogspot.com/2021/01/character-11-of-31-fantasy-trip-elf.html
• https://traveller-ct.blogspot.com/2021/01/character-20-of-31-fantasy-trip-dwarf.html

I realize that I also tend to the optimistic and hopeful view of my fantasy worlds, and that for there to be something for the players to do, there also needs to be some darker undertones. This is a trading post town, built on the ruins of an older fort for the lost city of Tuvano to the north over the mountains (this is described in the Fantasy Trip Adventures volume 1; leaving breadcrumbs for my players so we can eventually get to play that adventure). 

The Sea Elf pirates have taken over the town (really mostly half-Elves at the Silver Pirate tavern). It is surrounded by a couple of kingdoms that have not been defined but may be at the brink of war. We have a rare raid from Ogres to the west. We also, being on a trade route, get a lot of traffic through the town. And an occasional trapper from the south, bearing furs as well as rumors of things that happen up in those peaks to the south of Windmere.

And not all traders are the good kind: perhaps there are slave traders (generally outlawed in my world, but could be some places allow slaves and you have to get them from somewhere [and adventure hooks]), animal traders, fur traders trading in furs from intelligent beings such as the Taer (see TFT Old School Monsters). And even good merchants may hire guards that tend to get rowdy and boisterous. 

Built on the ruins of a guard post, there may well be some secret underground tunnels and treasure vaults. And the remains of battle long ago in the desert to the north or along the trade routes. So lets throw a few more things into Windmere.

First, I think there should be a small mercenary guild here. They offer protection services to the various caravans that pass through. In fact, the group's guide (which I never actually figured out much but used a card from the TFT Deck, so will expand on her background a bit here, along with the Guild of Feathered Guards. 

Sonji Tho of the Aster Clan

ST: 10

DX: 16 (15)

IQ: 9

MA: 10

Weapons

Small bow (1d-1)

Saber (2d-2)

Dagger (1d-1)

Cloth Armor (1)

Talents

Bow

Sword

Area Knowledge (Kalor Desert)

Alertness

Missile Wpn x2

Hailing from the desert Aster Clan, Sonji grew up in the Kalor Desert, learning the ins and outs of living in the desert. Her clan wiped out by a roving ogre raiding party, she moved to Windmere. Knowing little else, she offered her services as a guide through the desert. Eventually she joined the Guild of Feathered Guards, giving part of her fees for guild membership, but also getting a place to stay when in Windmere. She usually takes groups along the Trail of Lost hopes that winds through the desert, passing through Ceawla on the way to the Elemental City of Athukthad . Ceawla posts: here, here, and here. Maybe I need to add an index to the blog. She is taciturn, does not talk about her past, but is quick to defend her charges. She can also shoot her bow twice per combat round with astounding accuracy. Between the high DX and the missile weapon skill, she only misses on critical fails for targets in range. 

Guild of Feathered Guards

Named for their skills with the bow, the Guild is a small mercenary guild based in Edge City. It has small guild halls throughout this area of Cidri, including repurposing the old barracks in Windmere. The Guild offers services for guarding and guiding trade caravans or adventure groups. Rates are generally 1 gold per day per guard, but may vary based on the route and hazards. For those going along the Trail of Lost Hopes through the desert, usually 1 guard/guide is sufficient for the 3 day journey from Windmere to Ceawla, and the additional 2 days north to the Elemental City. They may charge an additional hazard pay if the group does something dangerous against the protestations of the guards. The guards keep half of the fee, the rest going into the guild coffers. 

The guild is considered honorable for those who know about them. There presence is mostly in towns or cities that have a trade route passing nearby. They rarely use magic users, though they are not averse to using magical items. A favored magical device is the Quiver of Replenishment (p 159) that more senior members may have, along with a +1 DX arrow. 

The trademark bows of the guards are carved with a feather along the shaft. The number of feathers indicates the rank of the guild member. Ranks are also indicative of the missile skill up to 3; above that it indicates a higher rank as missile skill is only allowed to go to 3:

• Recruit - no feather. Always part of a larger group.
• Member - one feather. May be solo on easier duties, part of a larger group for more dangerous journeys
• Sargent - two feathers. May be solo for minor and easy trips, or in charge of 1 or more other members up to 7 for more dangerous journeys
• Leader - three feathers. Can lead a few groups, generally in charge of the local guild hall 
• Guild Leader - four feathers. In charge of all the guild halls, and generally does not leave Edge City unless needed. The Guild Leader only stays in power for 8 years, then steps down. Rarely has a previous Guild Leader rotated back into that position.

Every 8 years, those who wish to become Guild Leader travel to Edge City. An archery contest, as well as a review of the applicants previous years of duty, are used to determine who becomes Guild Leader for the next 8 years. All guild halls have an archery range as well as fletching and bow making materials. However, they will often purchase bows from reputable crafters if they do not have their own bow mater. In Windmere, they will often get the Goblin merchant Jesp Zrag to procure good bows and arrows. They get a bit of a discount due to volume trading with the diminutive trader. Often the discount is increased if they parley information about the trade routes and their customers. Dugal Corbett, the local Guild Master, allows this to get better rates. 

In Windmere, the Guild of Feathered Guards has been revitalizing the barracks at the east gates. They keep their riding animals at Lurbuk's stables outside the eastern gates so that they are nearby. While the barracks does have some stable space, it has fallen into disrepair and not yet rebuilt. Rennor often stops by the Guild House, but she is more interested in the small town guard than in becoming a Guild member. They also pay a small tithe to the half-Elves running the town, and members can often be found at the Silver Pirate tavern, looking to see who may need guarding.

orange 24 for the Guild of the Feathered Guards

Rumors

And of course, there should always be rumors. I have plopped down several other Kickstarter settings around Windmere. to the south, across the mountains, is the lost city of Tuvano. Getting there though means getting through the mountains, which have their own set of perils, such as sasquatch from the Wampus Forest. Below Tuvano are the Yol'Najj ranges and all that. Or if they skip that, I'll come up with things that go east or west of Windmere.

Rumors would be like:

• there are hidden catacombs below the city. And Jesp's store is sitting on the entrance!
• the raiding Orcs are related to Lurbuk
• trappers have gone missing in the mountains
• there's a sandworm in that desert!
• there are buried temples in the Kalor Desert just waiting to be plundered
• a lamia is stealing children at night
• the Silver Pirate has a portal to the sea in the back room - can't you smell the sea salt and hear sea gulls?
• a battle almost a century ago between armies has left a stash of magical weapons on the eastern route. I have a map...

I have several PDFs of rumors. I need to go through those (and the various city encounter books/PDFs I have) to see what will go there. I also need to update the "index" page for Windmere to have a centralized location to find everything.