End of 2022

Another end of the year - time flies (unless you are stuck in jump space for a week in a tiny ship. With only 1 bathroom. Always find it funny that few deck plans seem to have enough bathrooms - what if that 1 breaks down? Always have a spare! Or at least one of those backpacking pails if all else fails I suppose).

I've been a bit slack lately - holidays and all that of course takes its toll on me. I really enjoy the run up to Christmas but always get a bit depressed when it is all over. I think I just prefer anticipation rather than the actual thing. 

Which brings me to gaming: I often think that is the same for my gaming. I really enjoy talking about gaming and prepping for games, but sometimes the games just don't live up to my expectations. I'm in a game now where the GM is doing a good bit of world-building which is great. Except I can barely read my notes (and I am moving those hand-written notes to an electronic document so that should help). He's mentioned a number of names and places that I've forgotten about until I read them in my notes. I feel I am failing in paying enough attention to the game & the world that is getting created as we play. And I know that the reverse is also true: I do a lot of world building (I can hear the shock from some of you long-time readers!) and I feel I just don't get that world across as well as I should. 

I've read a few books on the process (XDM is the latest, but also Robins Laws of Good Game Mastering, and a couple others, as well as various blog posts. Yet I feel I am still just not doing things right. Then I also realize that there is not "right" other than everyone is having fun. I just tend to over-analyze myself at times. There is this constant dichotomy between those two ideas in my head: I am not doing things right vs there is no real right as long as everyone has fun.

I've mostly resigned myself to accepting that my world-building I do mostly for myself. I enjoy it, and if the players at least see and get to play in part of it and seem to "get" my worlds, then it is all good.

Anyway - no end of year recaps or previews of the next year. I'll probably the character challenge again as it is both fun & fairly easy. I don't have to think a lot, just generate characters. That I can use in my various worlds. Still need to flesh out Fort Covenant and the smaller Windemere as I am hoping that I'll actually use them some day! I'll get some free characters to stick there.

I think the group is excited by the idea of a bounty hunter game. Still not sure if I'll do this in Traveller or not: the issue with Traveller is the speed of communication, so bounty hunting is almost forced to be in a single system. That 2-week time lag (1 week out, another week back) means you will always be chasing and never catching anyone. I have at least 2 Traveller bounty hunter books, so I need to read them with the intention of seeing how to play/run that sort of game. And I may just expand out one of my D'Arlee Quadrant worlds to give them enough to do in a single system. I just feel like an SF game, especially one named Traveller, you should be traveling a lot!

I'll use the rules from the Moon Toad Bounty Hunter book and generate a bounty hunter to start with at least. Here they define several types of bounty hunters: bondsmen, actual bounty hunters, repossession agents, tracers, process servers. Of those, the most "adventuresome" types to me are the bounty hunters and the repossession agents. We could do a repossession style game if we get characters with pilot skills so that they can take the ship back to where it needs to go. Which could be its own adventure as who knows how well the ship has been maintained since being absconded? 

From the book:

The Economics of Bounty Hunting

Inter-system communications in the vastness of space are at the speed of transport. If you are lucky enough to be on an X-Boat route, that means the news normally propagates at Jump-4. Of course, if you are not, the chances are that there will be delays, bureaucratic hurdles, and slow transports filling in the gaps. This means that a Bounty Warrant from one system will take time to arrive in another system – if we merely assume that it is a single Jump away - it will probably take a minimum of 2 weeks for the Bounty to be sent to nearby systems.

This means that there is no chance for two-way communications, or extended negotiations – the individual or organisation taking out the Bounty Warrant has no alternative but to put together the details of the target, at a price that they think is enough to get a Bounty Hunter interested – and fire it off. Then they wait, and hope…

...

Hey kid, being a Bounty Hunter is different to the entertainment channels – you know dashing off to some new system every week, blazing a trail in a fast ship across the Sector. It isn’t like that – just think for a few minutes about the distances, the time in jump, and the speed of comms. If you found a warrant in one system and got the information the target was in another system, the chances are really high they won’t be there when you get there. All Bounty Hunters are local – except for a few corporate types – and most of the time, we just track the target in system, slap them in a Low Berth, and take passage as cheap as we can to the Bounty Warrant Holder, cash in, and go home.

That helps define a few things: there should be local competition (friendly or not) and there may be a lot of waiting (of course, we'll start with something more actionable than sitting at the port checking the warrant space!)

The Bounty Hunter book also uses a "fast character generation" system that gives players a lot more control over their skills and even stats. There is also the traditional version, which I'll use. I just prefer a more random approach most of the time for generating RPG characters.

For the fast version, we start with 777777 and have a max of 42 (feels like The Fantasy Trip other than we're actually starting at 42, so can only adjust 1 up by going down in another). We have the same 4-year terms as Traveller and get 2 skills per term. They cannot be the same skill in the same term, and interestingly, at level 3+ you have to start specializing (i.e., pilot for specific class of ship or tonnage). At level 4 a specific ship, such as Scout. A nice overview is that level 1 = qualification training, 2 is really experienced, 3 is master's level, and 4+ is PhD level and requires daily exposure to keep that up. And apparently bounty hunters get pensions after 4 terms. Think it was 5 for classic.

There is a set of skills, most from various versions of Traveller. I do like that gambling requires a +1 intelligence, or an intelligence of, err, I think 9+? Need to check that out.

Moving on to the traditional character generation, I'll roll my stats: 397678. Hmm, with that 3 strength, think I'll allow myself my optional rule: 1 extra roll to replace any single stat. UPP is now 997678. A bit better than the 777777 at least. Next, I need to pick what I want to be and roll to see if I can get in. Think we'll go corporate (meaning I need to create a corporation of some sort!). An 11 lets me get in, a 10 means I also survived, a 5 means no promotion (so I am a support officer), and I manage to get back in. For skills, I get an automatic Gun Combat-1, picking Pistol-1 (though I need to recheck for which gun skills are available). Plus 2 skills per term, and I'll roll on the personal and then service: +1 social (UPP 997679) and vehicle, so Grav-1. I'll also roll on the events table: bad reputation. This explains the lack of a promotion! And I also lose that social I just picked up: UPP 997678. There was also some armed conflict during this 1st term.

Next term, I fail my survival roll. I could go all Iron Man and start over, but we'll just dump our hapless bounty out in the street, as he tries to go freelancer. A d4 and he managed 2 more years.

Johnne Martz 997678 age 24, ex-corporate bounty hunter from Chasers Incorporated.

Pistol-1, Grav-1, Cr10,000, pistol

A large young man who thought he would be a bounty hunter like those on the entertainment channels, he soon found that his aptitude for the career was not as bountiful as his aspirations. Getting kicke dout after 6 years, he has decided to go solo. Living in a small apartment in the startown, he visits the port's legal department daily, checking for bounties. His evenings are spent in various bars, trying to pick up any clues to any bounties that may be on planet. 

Short tempered and often brandishing his auto-pistol in what he thinks is a show of strength, he so far has managed to capture one bounty in the last 6 months, and is starting to get desperate.

And I hope everyone has a happy & safe New Years!

A Tale of Two Tavern Generators

 A while back I got the Kickstarter 'zine Two Minute Taverns. I liked it as it makes some interesting taverns, and even used it for non-fantasy taverns, though I had to curtail some of the more, well, fantastical aspects! See this post for that initial run-through.

The Fantasy Trip's Hexagram 10 recently arrived, and it too has a tavern generator. It also came with a nice box to put all the Hexgram magazines in. Taverns are suitable for any fantasy game - there are no rules for the ambiance and designs of taverns. So either generator is equally viable for any game regardless of which rule set.

So, let's run through the version by Christopher Rice and see what we get!

First, we roll for the class of tavern, and our 2d6 roll of 6 gives us a typical tavern, the local hangout. One nice part of this is that there are some rules that are specific to TFT, though not really. The prices for food and services are given, which is nice. I always have a hard time figuring out how much to charge for some of the most basic things. I really need to make a table for basic costs. Though perhaps not as detailed as the one I cribbed for the Cowboys & Dinosaur game: I researched prices in the 1880s. Anyway, our typical tavern meals run about 2 silvers, a room for 10 silvers or 1 gold. 

For services, I rolled a 4, giving us 1d services. Our typical tavern has 3 services:

• entertainment - there's a dance hall available and dancing is there. It does not say if the patrons are dancing, or there is a dance troupe, but as "the patrons should toss a coin", going with this is dancers for our patrons entertainment.
• long-term storage is available. There are some rules for strongboxes, which could easily be translated to other systems. A block of storage holding 50 pounds of equipment will run you 5 gold a week. And there are some adventure hooks for stores that have not been picked back up and the proprietor may be willing to sell, sight unseen, the contents.
• lodging. our typical tavern is really an inn

Checking for special clientele, our inn seems to cater to wizards. Now I am thinking of that pub in Ankh-Morpork that the wizard hung out (and I cannot remember the name, but it was in several of Terry Pratchett's very excellent books.

Finally, there are some suggestions about organizing things, and suggestions about notable characters but nothing to generate these characters, nor any random naming processes. As there are a lot of random name generators out there, no real loss. So off to a random inn name generator!

The Known Loaf Tavern is a typical tavern: a main floor with kitchens and the tavern. What sets it apart is the raised dance floor where a local dance troop of Gnomes performs 3 times a week. It is also the local hangout for wizards, and non-wizards tend to get a quick glance of disapproval. Meals run about 2 silvers, and a room for the night can be had for a gold. There are also long-term storage boxes available for the adventurer who may need to put some of their equipment up for a spell. Hagatha Vexx runs the place, and due to having the meal spell, can readily make anything that is not normally on the menu.

Hagatha Vexx, older female wizard, retired from adventuring. Almost 6' tall but thin, she does most of the cooking and her sons tend the bar and act as the occasional bouncer as needed. Though the sit eof the magic sword hanging above the kitchen door does tend to dissuade most people from causing a ruckus. ST 10 DX 12 IQ 14, Light, Magic Fist, Meal, Staff II (3 mana points), Sooth, Sword, Literacy, Business Sense. Magic sword; Keskirr (+1 damage, +3 vs goblinoid; from Dyson's Book of Swords)

In the end, I think I prefer the two-minute tavern: it has more fun quirks and things, as well as some interesting character building. Though I'll also pull from the services here as that is nice (though the zine also has something similar). Of course, the two-minute tavern is also a complete 'zine of 11 pages versus a 5-page article in a relatively short (38 page) magazine.

Old School Essentials - Classes and Races Bibliography

This last week was a good week for Kickstarters showing up: 3 of mine showed up, along with my Shado Technical manual! Sadly, the post office really hates my drieway, so I had to visit the post office to pick up those 4 packages. Fortunately, I waited until the end of the week as new packages seemed to show up daily. An early Christmas to myself!

The OSE box was exciting - I bought both boxed sets, the Classic and Advanced. I also picked up all three Carcass Crawlers, their in-house magazine for OSE (similar to The Fantasy Trip's Hexagram, which was also one of the Kickstarters to show up). And I have a nice t-shirt as well. The boxed sets will make playing this at the table a lot easier: I can use the tomes that have the complete player and GM rules, and the players can use the smaller books to stay focused on the stuff they need immediately. This is also why I got both the basic and the advanced: there is enough overlap that I should have enough books on hand. And as for the moment I only have a single player showing up, yes, I have that covered!

Between the two sets of rules, and the Carcass magazines, as well as a few related Kickstarters, I have quite the collection of races and classes a player could use. As noted in the 1st magazine, you don't have to make them all available - it is probably a good idea to restrict the available classes and races based on the type of game you want to play. Though I can also see that going the other way: let the players choose, then figure out the game from that. If we manage a Traveller game next year, that is my plan: I'll find out what sort of game they want to play, and then create something around that. Stealing from the hundreds of adventures I've got or can find!

Anyway, just as I have my Traveller bibliography for the various careers. I figure I should do the same thing for other games. And this post will be the OSE Bibliography of classes and races one could play. Note that Classic, the races are classes, so I'll try and make a note of that in the process. Some races are limited to which classes they can be, as well as their maximum level. Humans have no restrictions.

And I know I've more than what I've listed below - somewhere I've a Liche class, complete with spells. 

PT = Player's Tome (or the books in the sets)

AEI - Alchemy, Explosions and Inventions

CCn = Carcass Crawler 1/2/3

FG = Father's Goose Creations

BaB = Blobs and Blades

d12 - D12 MagazineD12 Magazine

Fairyland was a zine. I backed it here. Parts of my current in-play Goblin from this, as well as the Gobsmack zine. Probably need to post about my grumpy, non-trusting Goblin as I am playing out of my normal range of characters. And it is really throwing off one of the players I think as we've sort of switched roles somehow in the current game!

OS&Cn Old School and Cool from here Think I only backed the 1st one as I was not playing OSE yet. And realized I really don't need 5000 classes and things...though they are fun! And - I never backed this and somehow have the PDF. It may have been part of another KS - no idea how I got it as I am very strict about only getting legal PDFs and things like that! Though now thinking if they do another KS I may back and get physical copies...

Updates

UPDATED August 15, 2023: added Mushroom Gnome race, Necromancer class

UPDATED April 3, 2023: added Dungeon Duck race, and the Merchant class

UPDATED May 26, 2024: added classes from Blobs And Blades (BaB), D12 Issue 12

Races

Blob (BaB)

Bullbeggar (demi-human class or race; small, unassuming demi-humans with uncanny heads) (Fairland)

Dragonborn (demi-human class or race) (CC3)

Drow (dark Elves). Demi-human class or race  (PT)

Ducks (Dungeon Ducks)

Duergar (grey Dwarves) Demi-human class or race (PT)

Dwarf (Dwarf) Demi-human class or race (PT)

Elf (Elf) Demi-human class or race (PT)

Gargantua (huge humans, demi-human race or class) (CC1)

Gnome demi-human class or race (PT)

Goblin demi-human class or race (CC1)

Half-Elf demi-human class or race (PT)

Halfling demi-human class or race (PT)

Half-Orc demi-human class or race (PT)

Hephaestan(demi-human class or race; think Spock) (CC1)

Human - stock human, can be any class (PT)

Mutoid (demi-human class or race) (CC3)

Mushroom Gnome (demi-human race) (FG)

Mycelian (demi-human class or race. mushroom people) (CC3)

Ophidiean (BaB) Ophidians are hybrid humans descended from the unholy genetic experiments conducted by the sorcerous Serpent Men of the mythic past. Their bloodline carries supernatural reptilian traits that make them dangerous combatants and give them a hypnotic allure.

Phase Elf (demi-human class or race) (CC2)

Svirfneblin (Deep Gnomes) demi-human class or race (PT)

Tiefling (demi-human class or race; demon descendants) (CC3)

Wood Elf (demi-human class or race) (CC2)

Classes

Acolyte (CC1)

Acrobat (PT)

Adepts (BaB) Adepts are scholars and philosophers who have dedicated their lives to the study of magic in all its forms

Alchemist (AEI) Alchemists are adventurers who use a combination of magic and science to create useful potions and other alchemical items. These items are of great help to adventuring parties, making an alchemist a beneficial companion. Adventuring also helps an alchemist find the rare ingredients needed for making potions and items. 

Assassin (PT)

Augur (An augur is a scholar that can read the natural world by observing the flights of birds) (OS&C1)

Barbarian (PT)

Bard (PT)

Beastmaster (CC3)

Beerzerker (Beerserkers are cowardly brawlers known for their unquenchable thirst for mead, ale, and all things fermented) (OS&C1)

Blobs (BaB) Blobs are gelatinous monsters that look like dollops of translucent jelly in a variety of garish colors

Bullbeggar (Fairyland zine)

Cleric (PT)

Dancer (BaB) Dancers are agile and charismatic performers who have honed their art form so that they can tap into the primal forces of the universe, magically enthralling enemies, bolstering allies, and channeling elemental forces.

Demolitionist (AEI) Demolitionists are adventurers who have embraced the new technology of black powder and have begun to master its various uses, particularly regarding damaging objects and structures. These skills can be useful in both underground and siege operations. However, like black powder itself, most demolitionists tend to be a little unpredictable.

Dragonborn (CC3)

Drow (PT)

Druid (PT)

Duergar (PT)

Dwarf (PT)

Elf (PT)

Fighter (PT)

Fury (BaB( Furies are highly mobile warriors who specialize in fighting with a weapon in each hand

Gargantua (CC1)

Gnome (PT)

Goblin (CC1)

Half-Elf (PT)

Halfling (PT)

Half-Orc (PT)

Hephaestan (CC1)

Heliothra (Heliothra are creatures of pure light that spontaneously coalesce into mortal beings) (OS&C)

Illusionist (PT)

Inventor (AEI) Inventors are adventurers who use their skills to design and build mechanical devices. they can create a variety of different inventions that may be handy during an adventure, but their services are loud and bulky, and prone to falling apart.

Kineticist (CC1)

Knight (PT)

Language Expert (OS&C1)

Lizardling (OS&C1)

Lycan's Bane (supernatural creature hunters) (OS&C1)

Mage (CC1)

Magic User (PT)

Merchant (The Merchant)

Mon Frere (The mon frere is a bit of a reluctant adventurer. Ideally, they’d be growing grapes or hops in their monastery) (OS&C1)

Mutoid (CC3)

Mycelian (CC3)

Necromancer (OSE) 

Ophidian (BaB) Ophidians are hybrid humans descended from the unholy genetic experiments conducted by the sorcerous Serpent Men of the mythic past. Their bloodline carries supernatural reptilian traits that make them dangerous combatants and give them a hypnotic allure.

Paladin (PT)

Phase Elf (CC2)

Puppeteers (Puppeteers are masters of manipulation and can mesmerize the average person with their deft handiwork) (OS&C1)

Ranger (PT)

Scop (Bard variant) (OS&C1)

Shaman (D12 issue 34) Shaman are priests found in tribal or nomadic societies. They can act as guides,

leaders, or advisers within these societies. They are keepers of knowledge and are able to connect with, and communicate with, the spirits of the land and the animals on it.

Space Dwarf (OS&C1)

Swordmage (BaB) Swordmages are members of a fraternal order of arcane warriors who have dedicated themselves to mastering the balance between spell and steel. They are doughty fighters and formidable spellcasters who can channel magical power through their blades

Svirfneblin (PT)

Tiefling (CC3)

Thief (PT)

Wood Elf (CC2)

Traveller 5.10 System Generation Part 7: Native Intelligent Life History and Society

In our first part 7, we covered creating the Liobbe. A bilaterally symmetric filtering herbivore with graspers, 3 sexes, and significant senses in their torsos. What I neglected to do is figure their tech level, which, now that that there are Imperial citizens there with a base tech level of 8, and the port probably significantly higher due to being an A port, just where do our gore-filled Liobbes stand?

Going with a flux roll, they are mostly TL-2, living across most of Iomaria. Evolving from the wetlands, the Liobbe are herbivorous filters, with large filtering openings in their torsos. These "mouths" are encircled by a ring of eyes and noses, allowing them to sense the foods they basically suck up and filter through a variety of stomachs. Mostly various grasses and herbs, along with the biomasses that cause Iomaria's atmosphere to be considered tainted. The planet's dense atmosphere, especially in the wetlands, is rich in floating plants that can cause severe and fatal reactions to those not native to the planet. The Liobbe spend a large amount of their time grazing, but as this is a low-intensity thing, they ended up gaining intelligence out of sheer boredom as one sophontologist put it. Having few natural predators, they evolved slower than the major races did.

The Liobbe's social structure grew out of the three genders. While the females carry the eggs and are protective of them, the males appear to have little to no attachment to any specific off-spring but treat all children equally - generally neglect. The neuters tend to be the power behind the rulers, or shamans in earlier times. Males tend to be larger and much stronger than the females or neuters and have a heavy fight reflex when threatened. Generally, males are the titular ruler, but it is not uncommon for females to rule. However - it is the neuters that advise and actually make most of the actual decisions. Neuters are seen as something almost divine, though not in any specific religious sense. There is an intense respect for them, and in the infrequent battles, it is only makes who actually fight. 

From this, early tribalism evolved from small family units to larger "pods". These pods grazed larger areas, eventually merging and branching out. Civilization grew in response, mostly centered around improved agriculture to reduce the amount of time needed to feed. While the Liobbe are generally TL-2, they do have some interesting agricultural techniques and more knowledge on genetics than expected. 

Their tools still tend to be simple: a pair of 4-fingered graspers give them a very hearty grip but not as much fidelity as the human hand. Their tools and weapons tend to be much thicker than human-standard between their graspers and the heavier gravity. While humans can use their tools, they are uncomfortably heavy and have much thicker grips than similar human-styled tools. While on average a bit smaller than humans, though wider, their grip strength has been known to damage human tools. Fortunately, handshaking is not a custom the Liobbe share with human.

Little communication exists between the Imperial settlers and the Liobbe. There have been some interesting architectural finds, but the Liobbe seem to have settled into the TL-2 existence for centuries. They have coastal towns and villages and have spread out over most of the world except for what they call the Teilza, or the Darkness. Their language can be translated and spoken by humans with some difficulty. One disconcerting aspect is that they tend to be eating while talking: their torsos filter the food, yet they have a head and mouth to speak with. Unlike humans, speaking with their "mouth" full is perfectly normal and even expected.

Their skins come in a variety of colors, though tending to the copper tones. 

There are some scientists living in some of the towns, but require frequent supply runs. The dense tainted atmosphere makes living with the Liobbe difficult: humans cannot breathe the atmosphere, and they cannot breathe a standard atmosphere. 

Few Liobbe have ever left Iomaria: requiring significant life support both in terms of atmosphere and their somewhat unique food source, it becomes very expensive very fast. And while a few of the neuters have expressed a desire to see the universe, the operational aspect of this is very daunting. 

There is little trading between the Liobbe and the alien residents of the planet. In the scale of things, the Liobbe are a very minor alien race among thousands throughout the universe. Human expansion is pushing into some areas that the Liobbe want to keep, so there have been minor skirmishes between Iomaria's nascent army and the Liobbe. There is a Liobbe ambassadorial group at the starport, trying to mediate between the various factions. In particular, a megacorporation has been developing an industrial complex in the middle of a Liobbe tribal tlingra, or grazing fields. There are some local human groups trying to prevent the corporation as well, and further development is held up due to the immense amount of red tape.

Okay, not a great write up. And took longer than expected. I think this is one of those cases where it would be great to bounce ideas around. While I generally have a pretty good imagination, sometimes I get stuck. And coming up with a completely alien race is really hard to do honestly. We don't have anything really other than humans to decide what makes intelligence. Yes, some other animals are tool users, and seem to have fairly complex social hierarchies, even they are from this planet and share the same basic biology. An entirely alien biology would create, I would hazard, a completely alien intelligence. Few SF authors have managed this particularly well, I think. Just finished reading (maybe re-reading but if so, I've forgotten the 1st time I read it) A Mote in God's Eye, and even that alien civilization is not really that alien: they have relatable drives and needs. Their biology does dictate things, but it is really just an extreme form of issues we have as humans. CJ Cherryh does some pretty good aliens but for me, most of her books were a hard read for that reason (as well as her human protagonists generally seeming just reactive and not even particularly reactive at that. Though I may be misremembering that as well) 

Anyway - my first Traveller aliens. I think. And happy December!

Traveller 5 System Generation Part 7: Native Intelligent Life

Back in part 1, Iomaria ended up having NIL, a native intelligent life. I've not read this section of T5, so here goes.

First, there are various definitions of life on a planet. Corporate, colonists, transients, settlers, transplants, natives, exotic natives, extinct natives, catastrophic extinct natives and vanished transplants. Because of Iomaria's dense tainted atmosphere (9), we have exotic natives. And oops - there are some inconsistencies here: the initial definition says 9+, but later it is A+, and there is another chart in the actual workflow that also says ABC. So, our natives are no longer exotic. I even added a comment over on COTI for that.

Next, we identify the sophont and note that it is nothing more than a random word and attach to the planet or system. Using this SF random word generator I pick the Liobbe of Iomaria (Iomaria 2 Vee [K3 V]). The Vee is due to Iomaria being in a far orbit around its big planet Tusog. 

Next, we find the environment. Having a -5 - +5 range, assuming a flux roll. A 2 gives us wetlands - water-dominated marshes. And moving to chart B it does say that, though the A chart does not. Rolling another die and our wetland dweller is a walker. As such, our NIL walks and breathes the dense, tainted atmosphere. And I am not sure I ever figured out what the taint actually is! Interestingly, had I rolled a -1, 0 or 1, as Iomaria is tidally locked, they could have been in the baked lands, twilight zone or frozen lands. Though as Iomaria is tidally locked around a planet and not a star, it won't be as extreme as if it were tidally locked around a star.

Another flux roll, and a -3 is an herbivore. The type of niche is another flux roll, adding our native terrain roll to that. A flux roll of (5-1) 4 + 2 gives us 6, a filtering herbivore. And in the wetlands...may have some major mosquito swarms in those wetlands! Well, they could also filter the water similar to the baleen whale. Though they are herbivores, so pollen perhaps? Something that has some major calories though. 

Next, we move on the to the physical stats. C1 is always strength, and C4 is always intelligence. Flux for other stats, so we have C2 = dexterity, same as humans. C3 is vigor rather than endurance. C5 is instinct instead of education, and C6 is social status, same as humans. 

For the physical stats (C1, C2, C3) we roll flux + the environmental roll of 2. This tells us how many d6 to roll. C1/Stength is 2d6, C2/Dexterify is also 2d6. C3/Vigor is also 2d6. Oddly I rolled -2 for each of those rolls, then the +2 made them all 0. 

Intelligence is straight flux, and -3 is still a 2d6. For C5/instinct, -1 is still 2d6. And a note that instinct is always 2d6. For social, we also managed a 0 flux for 2d6. 

Our 6 stats are rolled the exact same way as stock humans, though we have vigor rather than endurance, and instinct rather than education. Vigor is defined as short-term resistance to fatigue, and instinct is genetically determined. This also gives us the genetic profile of SDVIIS, for Strength/Dexterity/Vigor/Intelligence/Instinct/Social. 

We skip the entire caste system as we have a human-type of social hierarchy. Moving on to sophont genders, Our flux gives us a FMN: female, male and a neuter. We can also see if there are gender-based differences for modifying the base roll. Reading the notes, apparently instinct can also vary but education or training does not. As we have 3 genders (and the back of the sophont card has this laid out, lets see what we get:

Gender/Stat	C1 / Strength	C2 / Dexterity	C3 / Vigor	C4 / Intelligence	C5 / Instinct
Female	+1	-	-4	-	-2
Male	+1d	-	-	-	-2
Neuter	-4	-2	-5	+5	-

Our females a tad stronger on average but a lot less vigorous, and, like the males, suffer a -2 on the instinct rolls. The males are brutes - 3d6 for strength. As with the females, they get a -2 on their instinct roll. Finally, the neuters are a lot weaker on average, less dexterous and vigorous. They make up for this by having regular instincts but a whopping +5 on their intelligence rolls. This can help me shape their society a bit, as the neuters are the ones behind most of the advances in the history of this sophont. 

Gender is not determined until life stage 2. Apparently, our infants are all gender neutral. It is also fixed - once the gender has been determined, it will not change later in life. Going to make for some fun gender reveal parties as it will be a bit later in life!

Next, we need to determine the life stages (so we can tell how old they are when they have a gender). Atage 2 is teenage regardless, so that is interesting and would have a pretty heavy effect on society. Probably no need for Title IX types of things, as until they are teenagers everyone is the same.

0 / Infant	2
1 / Child	8
2 / Teen	4
3 / Young Adult	8
4 / Adult	8
5 / Peak	8
6 / Mid-Life	12
7 / Senior	4
8 / Elder	8
9 / Retirement	8

Somewhere between 10 and 14, their gender is determined. Interestingly, most of their stages are similar to humans other than their senior stage which is 4 versus the 8 for human. They also have a shorter teenage period (which, if you are a parent, that can be a good thing! But as they also gain a gender, it is probably related to growing up fast once gender characteristics show up) They do make up for that though as their midlife is half again as long humans. This does give us a life expectancy of 70 years.

Moving on to the senses. This is going to be info I really have no idea how it will work in actual game play. Not that I am playing any Traveller lately, though hoping we'll get a game next year sometime. 

Vision, our constant is 18 and visual. V-18-CRG. The 18 was a flux roll, and the ACR is based on the K3 star. Thinking I need to dig back into the vision section for what CRG means. A reference to where to find things would have been nice. Maybe T5.2. Anyway, finally found the bands on page 191, so C = Cerise, R = Red and G = Green. Basically, they see a bit higher in the visual range than humans do, having a harder time with blues. Not really sure how that would work out. And it turns out I just need to reference the senses chapter in book 1 to know what all these things mean.

Hearing is H-22-4132. This shows the frequency (4) is in the infrasonic range - humans may feel some rumbling but the Liobbe can hear well into the infrasonic range. We're going to need communicators to talk with them: they can barely hear the frequencies we speak at and we can't hear theirs. This is reinforced with the single span (the 1) meaning the Liobbe have a very limited range of frequencies they hear. Their voices oddly are centered a bit below their optimal hearing range. Meaning they speak in an even lower frequency range than they hear comfortably at. However, having a voice range of two they can make themselves heard. Again - this slight difference between speaking and hearing will have an impact on their society as well. 

Smell is S-24-1. They have a horrible sense of smell. And in the section on smell, there is a universal odor profile! They have rules for determining if and what you can smell, and what you can determine from that. And even a random table to generate smells. Hmm, rolled up a royalty marker with an overtone of fear. I will have to use that to help determine how their societies evolved - there is some sense of royalty that rules via fear perhaps? Though the nuance of scatter implies it may be a run away signal. So far I have QEW as our scent. Adding in the remaining we have QEW-WB1. Meaning the females scatter and the males go beserk, and there is no effect for the neuter gender. Though I think I am misreading the table. Regardless, I like the idea of this and will try & work that in.

Touch is T-18-4. They are more sensitive to touch than humans (humans are 2, the Liobbe are 4). The sensitivity is used in rolls (as are are the sense values) but the immediate result is how many times they can try to touch something to feel something. Again - there are rules for touching things. I knew that T5 had the maker rules, but the sense rules are interesting if you really want a very crunchy game.

Awareness is A-00-0. This is for electrical and magnetic fields. Humans don't have this sense, and not sure if all NIL have this. And they don't - rolling on the senses table indicates they don't have this sense either.

Same for perception - they are as oblivious as I am.

Now we move into body structure. I am rolling some boring flux, and we have a bilateral species. We have a brain in the head, but senses are torso-based. Not sure I am following the limbs table, but they seem to have arms and legs, and no tail or anything unusual. They have an internal skeleton but have gore rather than blood circulating under their skin. They have claws on their graspers (three or more mutually opposed flaps or digits). This gives us the fun code of H-TS-LN-AL-N for a head with a torso that has senses, legs and arms and no tails. I think that section needs a lot more explanation on what those codes actually mean as I am not sure if this means our Liobbe have two sets of legs and one is the arms with their manipulators or what. Like a lot of T5 - dense info-rich tables with an insufficient amount of explanation as to what it really means. You can tell Marc had in his head what he wanted to do, just did not always get it out on paper. I wish that Kickstarter had a professional editor involved (you cannot edit your own stuff. As mentioned way too many times, I write code and we have code reviews as we often don't see things if we've written it ourselves. Same for anything - you see what you want to see versus what is really there quite often).  But at least we have manipulators instead of hands, so that is interesting. 

Special abilities! Our females get 2 rolls, and they gain special abilities in music and as a talent, rage. Which is odd as they run away more often from the earlier rolls. That shall be a challenge to integrate into this species. The males were to get 1 ability, then I rolled for disability, but the flux ended up with nothing.  The neuters were to get two abilities, but both rolls came up empty. Somehow the females ended up with all the gifts, the males and neuters, nada. 

And just how big are the Liobbe? Based on the 3 physical stats, we have:

• Females: 2 + 2 + 1 = 5x12 = 60 (~60kg average)
• Males: 3 + 2 + 1 = 6x12 = 72 (~72kg average)
• Neuters: 2 + 2 + 1 = 5x12 = 60 (~60kg average)

This puts the Liobbe into a "standard" size, similar to humans. The females and neuters are smaller than the males. Then there is the not-well-explained section to derive the height and all that. No indication on how to choose, so I think you can pick the type of body form profile. As this is a higher-grave planet, going with something a bit thicker than human. Very thick so our BFP (Body Form Profile) is 7. So for our typical Liobbe:

• Females BFP 7: 60/1000 = 0.06. .06 * 7*7 = 2.94. Cube root (!) so about 1.4m tall.
• Males BFP 7: 72/1000 = 0.072. 0.72 * 7*7 = 3.528. Cube root so about 1.5 meters tall
• Neuters are the same as females, but I am going to adjust their BFP to be "human" average instead, so BFP 9. 60/1000 = 0.06. 0.06 * 9*9 = 4.86. Cube root and we get about 1.7 meters

And hey - the next page does all that for you in a single table. I did not need to look up a cube root calculator!

Then there is a section on uniques, which I am not going to apply to the Liobbe. It is more of a suggested list of things. 

Same for Psionics - I've never been a fan of psionics in Traveller (if I want to play that sort of game, I'd pick something different).  It does go into some fun decisions based on genders and all that, so it could be that only 1 of the three genders has the potential for psionics. 

Whew! This is a lot more work than I would have thought! And this does not even include anything about their societies, how they interact with the Imperium and aliens on their planet, and even their population.

Part 1 here

Part 2 here

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6 - Marquis

Part 6 - Viscount

Part 6 - Knight

Traveller 5 System Generation Iomaria Part 6 the Knight

Lady Bethany Quatori, Knight of Iomaria

68688B age 28

World Knowledge-6 Iomaria, Advocacy-1, Diplomacy-1, Leader-1, Archeology-1

Over-compensating for her perceived lack of a good education, Lady Bethany spends a large amount of her time at various archeological sites on Iomaria. Her income of Cr20,000/year from her lands on her home planet (a high population sub-sector capital world) barely covers her expenses quite often, but she has learned a great deal about the natives of Iomaria as well as the people who live on this heavy planet. She is often seen in various cities and ports across the world, though the Imperium does maintain a relatively modest office suite at the starport.

The Process

Really, I suppose it should be part 6a, 6b and 6c as my original plan was all 3 nobles were going to be on a single post. Then it just took longer than expected to go through the process. And here it is for the final noble, and this time it took me 20+ rolls before one came up a knight! Good think I like rolling dice!

We start with 68674B. While Lady Bethany is fairly average for the most part, her education is sorely lacking! Because of that, I am actually going to see about getting her education increased. Assuming I can figure out the education system: it was complicated and as her intelligence and education are not great, she may have to do a few waivers to get through.

And yes, in game terms, it really does not make a lot of difference about the education stat. I use it in games for book knowledge about things, and sometimes as a modifier for performing tasks that you may not have a direct skill in. It is one of those, to me at least, hard to pin down the best way to use it. But it is just drilled in me that higher education is important! Of course, I am not exactly using my master's in liberal arts, but I took that for fun more than anything else. And my computer science degree is 40-year-old now, so while a lot of what I learned is actually still applicable, more important is what I am doing and learning now.

Side note: the Delve game actually has the skill rolls all tied to one of your stats, which are percentage-based. If your learning stat was at 40%, for instance, any learning skills are rolled at that percentage. Each of the couple dozen or so listed skills are associated with one of the stats. Makes it pretty easy once you figure that out (and then there are levels as to just how well you know that particular skill, so may get a higher roll). 

Having an education of 4, the only choice initially is to get ED5. Rolling a 7, which is her intelligence, she just makes it so we now have 68675B. She can now go to college. Int or Edu stats is really going to assume she gets a few waivers. However - that being social or less she will ALWAYS get a waiver if I am reading those rules correctly. It is good to be a high-ranking member of society!

Year 1, she passes! A couple of rolls and she is majoring in Archeology, so Archeology-1.

Year 2, needing a 4 or less, I roll a 7, so fail! I get the waiver rolling a 10, so while she passes this year, she does not gain any skills. 

Year 3, I roll high again, and a 6 is less than the 11 I now need for a waiver (12 - 1 previous waiver). So she passes but does not gain any skills again. 

Year 4, and I do not roll under the required 4, but do roll under the required 10 for a waiver. She graduates college with a BA in Archeology and an education of 8, giving her UPP 68678B.

Now at age 22, she is ready for the world of the nobles. And really hoping she does not get elevated as she is already a knight. I figure as soon as she is exiled, she will be on Iomaria.

And of course, year 1 as a noble she is exiled. I think I'll let her stay a bit longer in the career as at this point she only has 1 skill, and while she is a NPC, that does seem a bit lacking! Rolling on the political column, she does pick up Diplomacy-1, so at least she can perform in her post!

Year 2, and she is still in exile. She picks up Leader-1, so despite herself, she seems a born leader. 

Year 3, and still in exile, she takes to the legal system and gains Advocacy-1. 

Year 4 and she returns from exile! She succeeds in the intrigue's or Horen's Palace, and rolling on the personal (I know, risking an actual social push! but hoping for a physical stat) she gets +1 intelligence. Her UPP is now 68688B.

Deciding to stick in this career, she makes another intrigue, the Gald Scandal (why yes, that is the neighboring world! There may well be political intrigue on Iomaria between our nobles). She is not elevated, she has apparently spent a LOT of time in her exile studying Iomaria, gaining World Knowledge-6 Iomaria which is a pretty impressive feat. 

Year 2 she is exiled back to Iomaria, and this is where we pick up her story for the system. 

And it turns out I am going to have to deal with the NIL, native intelligent life. A heavy world with a dense, tainted atmosphere. I am going to have to re-read that JTAS article on world building as it had some notes on native intelligent life. Plus, there are (of course!) rules for other sophonts. Next post - native life forms! And that may include my still unedited post on random tables to extend the animal encounter tables (and yes, as prompted I do now have Stars Without Number so will review those tables. Maybe just use them as at times it seems my imagination just stops cold!)

Traveller 5: System Generation Iomaria Part 6 the Viscount

Lady Shana Lerisnarii Akrashash of Iomaria, Baroness of Gald

88879e age 33

World Knowledge (Iomaria)-3, Grav-1, Tactics-1, Counsellor-1, Ship's Boat-1, Athletics (Endurance-1), Medic-1, Advocate-1, Leader-1, Wheeled-1.

A "working" noble her whole life, Shana has worked her way up the ranks with thoughtful and deliberate choices. Her few times exiled from the glory of the Imperial center was usually to Iomaria, and deciding to take a post there, she is the official host for the world when the Imperium comes to visit, as well as the final legal guide. Her vast estates (24 terrain hexes on Iomaria, and 6 on Gald (baronet 2 + 4 for barony) gives her an income of Cr720,000 from her interests on Iomaria, and Cr120,000 for Gald, an ice-capped non-industrial world 2 parsecs from Iomaria. She has a large staff at the port but is rarely there herself. Her primary goal is keeping Iomaria's population stable and growing, and while not as jovial or overly self-confident as Sir Flynn, the Lady Shana does throw a more elegant soiree than our brash Marquis.

Some notes

In going through the noble career again, I think I messed up the Marquis a bit, but not enough to worry. I did have to cut his income in half - misread the table as a Marquis gets 8 hexes, not 16 (though I also did not add his 4 hexes from his elevation, so back to another edit!) Shana is also not highly skilled in the T5 sense - the only major skill or knowledge she has is due to that roll 1d6 for world knowledge. 

Shana also got a baronet and baron ranks, and they each some with land. I decided to stick them on a neighboring world and rolled up a random world from page 56 of T5 Book 1, just swapping out the Spinward Marches name for a MTU name (not that these worlds exist anywhere outside of these blog notes, though perhaps I'll add them to the D'Arlee sector sometime)

Rolling up the character

I'll admit it took quite a few random rolls to get a noble (and yes, I could have just made it up, but for me creating NPCs whole-clothe via the same way PCs are created just seems better to me. Otherwise, I fear my NPCs would all end up pretty much the same as the others. Plus, it gives me a chance to roll dice and re-read the rules. As I seem to keep interpreting the T5 differently every time I read them!)

Starting with 77878B, our future viscount starts as a knight (and if I don't end up with any elevations, will be the knight as I am going through character creation writing this post).

With average intelligence and education, our knight is going to just go through the noble career, a working woman who takes the Imperial role perhaps more seriously than Sir Flynn, our Marquis. Of course, with these stats it is more difficult to get an elevation. Perhaps I should have taken Sir Flynn a bit further!

Sadly, she is exiled in year 1 (and in re-re-reading, it looks like elevation was NOT calculated as I thought, that was only for the exile roll. I think. The elevation roll is social class with the DM being a flux roll, so it is a bit more random than I thought. Regardless, in exile I rolled on the personal and interestingly a 6 is a +1 to social class! Our knightess is now a Baronet, though in the Imperial hinterlands somewhere. This also gives her 2 terrain hexes somewhere, probably not Iomaria. Her full title shall be interesting when we get there.

Year 2, she does return from exile and rolling the travel table, picks up Driver. Going with Grav-1 as I always wanted a flying car! 

Year 3 she fully makes her intrigue (exile: 1, intrigue: 1) with a 12. Even with flux though, she does not get elevated. And in reading a bit further in the book, there is a table of random intrigues! The <element> Affair...hmm, there are +100 elements so just rolling d100 we get The Iron Affair. She picks up a Councellor-1 skill

Despite that intrigue success, she is exiled again (just barely). The Iron Affair, while initially successful, had some elements (see what I did there?) that backfired. She picks up Leader-1. Exile: 2, intrigue: 1

For her 2nd term as a working noble, she returns again for exile. And in reading the text, it actually implies she can do intrigue: assuming that failure: continued exile; may not attempt intrigue implies that if you succeed, you can attempt intrigue. With that reading in mind, she navigates Araskii's Exile but is not elevated. Apparently, she applied some Tactics-1 skills. Exile: 2, intrigue: 2

Year 2, she barely misses exile and again is not elevated. This year Riston's Palace, a place full of political backstabbing. She escaped the tedium by picking up a starship skill. I was thinking that was the traditional pilot skills (ship's boat, pilot) but is actually a broader choice. Think I'll stick with my original Ship's Boat-1 skill as that was her escape from the political shenanigans. Exile: 2, intrigue: 3

Year 3, she is at Shakabaii Palace. Rather than flitting about, she takes up running and gains Athletics-1. And did not make her elevation - looking like it is going to be hard to get her elevated to Viscount! Exile: 2, intrigue: 4

Year 4, she is exiled again. Deciding to get stronger in a physical sense, she gains strength +1, giving her a 87878c UPP so far. Yep, small C as the ranks are expanded a bit. Exile: 3, intrigue: 4

3rd term she is out of exile (9 -3 [exile] +4 = 10 which is > the 8 she needed. She does not make her intrigue roll, so this was a year and the back halls and not accomplishing much of anything. Picking up another starship skill, she gains Medic-1 as a starship skill. And I realized I missed that she gets an extra 2 skills when elevated! I don't know if the personal skill gaining a social counts, but I am going with yes, yes it does. Hoping for another shot that way, rolling both of those on the personal skill table. And yes, now she is a big C Baroness and gains a dexterity for a UPP of 88878C. That also helps with intrigue a bit. Exile: 3, intrigue: 4

Year 2, and turning 28, she barely avoids exile (that +1 from the intrigue helped!) She has no intrigue this year and rolling on the vocation table I get Capital. She picks up World Knowledge-3 of the world she is a baron on. Let us be optimistic and say Iomaria - she is an expert there (well, okay, the skill levels in T5 are a lot different than Classic but she still knows a fair amount of this world).  Exile: 3, intrigue: 4.

Year 3 and flies through intrigue, the Titanium Affair. She does not make the elevation but gets Advocate-1 to handle rudimentary legal processes. Exile: 3, intrigue: 5

Year 4 and scrapes by exile and goes through the Judgement of Otakir Dvorak. She is not elevated and decides to take up driving and gains Wheeled-1. Exile: 3, intrigue: 6. This gives her a +3 on at least checking for exile and elevation, so that helps our rolls a bit. 

4th term and I still need to gain 2 more ranks! and she starts having to worry about aging rolls I think. Year 1, at age 31, she finally makes an elevation (thank you flux roll!) and is now 88878D. Getting two rolls, I am going to roll on the personal & hope I get a 6! I do not...apparently she went to Marquis school and worked on her dexterity: 89879D. Exile: 3, intrigue: 7

Year 2 (age 32) she makes the intrigue (Johannes' Exile) but no elevation. Hoping for the personal roll to make it, I do, so we now officially have our viscountess with 88879e (lower-case e). 

Year 3 she makes the intrigue roll (the Platinum Affair) and does not make elevation (which is actually good...she picks up the Political-1 skill, and I think we'll plop our still youthful viscount on Iomaria.

Traveller 5: System Generation Iomaria Part 6, the Marquis

End Result

Marquis Sir Flynn D'Oric, age 34, Noble 7899CC

Admin-2, Philosophy-2, History-2, Psychology-1, Pilot-2, Counsellor-1, Liason-1, Leader-1, Comms-1

The primary Imperial noble of Iomaria, Sir Flynn is a somewhat brash young man, confident in himself and his ability to guide Iomaria towards a better future. 

The Process

 As we need some nobles, I thought I'd try to use T5 to generate a noble. Oddly it only took me 2 rolls (and I roll straight as rolled!) to get 6799BC. Starting off as a baron, so we only need 1 promotion, err, elevation, to get to the Marquis level we need.

Having a decent intelligence and already a great education, of course we go through the university system! It is unlikely with his 11 education to fail any of rolls, and of course, he does not. We end up graduating with Administration-4, Philosophy-2. Continuing education, hie easily makes his master's degree, gaining History-2 and Psychology-1. This is assuming I followed the education rules correctly: sometimes T5 is vague and is written from the perspective of someone who has it all in his head and this is merely the cheat sheet. I really wish he had gotten some professional editors as pretty sure it was just the core group doing this. 

The noble career in T5 is really a game of intrigue. The 4 stats for the risk/reward are C2 C3 C4 C5, or for Sir Flynn 7-9-9-11, so pretty good odds. Rolling along, he fails the risk and is exiled to someplace at the outskirts of the Imperium for a year (exile count = 1) in his very 1st year of his 1st term. He does make his reward, and apparently exercised regularly as he picked up +1 strength. Flynn's UPP is currently 7799BC. The 2nd year he makes his return, so no intrigue or elevation is possible. He picks up Pilot-1, perhaps piloting back from his exile. Year 3 he makes the intrigue (intrigue count = 1), and somehow, I actually rolled 12, which is what he needed for his elevation to Marquis (the exiles count against the roll, the successful intrigues count for. Without a lot of successful intrigues it is very difficult to get elevated the higher your nobility rank as you need to roll your current rank + exiles - intrigues. So being a 12, I needed to roll 12 + 1 - 1, or 12. And I did. This is an interesting mechanic as it does make elevations increasingly difficult unless you are really successful in the intrigue rolls. He also succeeded in the reward and gains the Counsellor-1 skill. Year 4 we have another successful intrigue (exile: 1, intrigue: 2) and gain the Liason-1 skill. Needing a 12 to get elevated (current noble rank 13 + 1 (exile) - 2 (intrigue) = 12 or better to roll) my rolls return to normal with a 6.

His 2nd term he is again exiled (that 7 dex/C2 stat bites him each time!) He also managed to fail the reward roll and being exiled cannot roll for elevation (exile: 2, intrigue: 2). Year 2 he returns, gaining the Leader-1 skill. I am thinking that returning does not allow you to roll for intrigue (and even mention that above. Silly stream of inconsistent consciousness!)  Year 3 wins the intrigue (exile: 2, intrigue: 3) but no elevation. We do add to our dexterity this year. Year 4 he is again exiled to the hinterlands, though does pick up Comms-1.

Being a young man of 34, he has been "exiled" to the far-off world of Iomaria. Granted 8 terrain hexes, he will have a yearly income of Cr240,000 per year, and he is kept away from the further intrigues closer to the Imperial Court. He has been tasked with keeping the population in line with the Imperial standards and seeing if he can make them a more enthusiastic Imperial system. He has the Navy and Scout bases as needed.

Having gone through this process, I now need a bit more personality. Very highly educated with few actually practical skills, and having been exiled 3 times in 8 years, I believe Sir Flynn, despite his above average intelligence, is also overly confident. There is no imposter syndrome for the Marquis!  Despite this, he does have some innate leadership skills that have helped him to return in triumph and has a small coterie of sycophants at his beck and call on his estates on Iomaria. 

He will often be at starport, where he has extensive offices. Knowing that he also needs to help the native population to enjoy the fruits of being Imperial citizens, he also throws several lavish parties yearly. While some are aimed more at the government bureaucrats and trying to get the laws to ease up for Imperial trade, he also throws galas for "the common folk" that are more like vast street parties.

His sealed grav limo is one of the few gravity vehicles on-world, and is often seen flying across the vast estates he has. The tainted dense atmosphere does mean filter masks are required outside of buildings. Behind the scenes, Sir Flynn has been working on attempts to remove the deadly pollens from the air, and has hired at his own expense a couple of scientists who work out of the starport (which is one of the reasons he spends a fair amount of time there).

Adroit at administering his duties, Sir Flynn does have some grudging respect for the various departments of the government in how they can be both extremely organized and yet so inefficient. To date, his attempts to influence them to remove layers of red tape have failed. 

Traveller 5: System Generation Iomaria Part 5

The End Result

Iomaria A99889A-8 {1} (B7K-1) [7F08] BDe Im NS G NIL

Trade codes: PH, PA, PI. Naval and Scout bases, Imperial Knight, Marquis and Viscount representatives are present. Travel code Green, and there is a native intelligent lifeform present.

Iomaria orbits Tusog, a big planet in orbit 2 with a 248-day year, orbiting every 4 hours. Being tidally locked, one side rarely gets much in the way of sunlight. The dark side is the side facing Tusog, and most of the population lives on the other half of Isomaria. The class A port is located in the Imperial Viscount's land holdings. The port is small by normal standards. Adjacent to the port are both the Naval and Scout bases, each with their own fuel and maintenance facilities. Imperial-owned warehousing facilities are available in the port, though many regulations generally require cargo going to Iomaria to be stored in Wareburg, the startown outside the port lines. Cargo from Iomaria to the rest of the universe also are required to be stored in these warehouses.

There are 2 gas giants in the system, a smaller gas giant in orbit 0 and a large gas giant out in orbit 9. There are 3 ice worlds and 2 radiation worlds in the system, each with 0 or more satellites. 

Transit times for jump are generally higher due to Tusog's presence. Iomaria is well within its jump shadow.

The inhabitants of Iomaria seem to be fairly dour: their architecture assumes a brutalist functional style, clothing is generally pretty bland, and sadly even their hats tend to be similar to everyone else's. Lines are a constant in the daily life of the citizens, and even for those visiting. Perhaps it is the slightly heavier gravity that causes people to drag their feet both literally and figuratively. The dense atmosphere is taxing for most outdoor activities as well. There is significant red-tape for any endeavor, and doubly so for outsiders. Merchants can expect up to 3 times longer for unloading and loading cargoes, hiring or anything else that has to deal with the very impersonal bureaucracy that is Iomaria's government. Guilds and unions layer on additional rules and regulations. The government has tests to enter the bureaucracy, as well as more tests to move up. Dealing with anything outside the starport means dealing with a bureaucrat. 

The Process

 Found the hexes that the nobility are supposed to get, and it is in terrain hexes, NOT world hexes! Our viscount gets 16 terrain hexes, each being 100km in diameter, and each trade classification gives Cr10K. 16x3x10 = Cr480,000 per year. As a Viscount is based on the pre-high population trade code, I'm going with she runs lavish parties and tries to showcase Imperial social sensibilities. Keept the population in-synch with the Imperium's ideals. This is not a particularly hard task on Iomaria other than fighting some social inertia. Our Knight has Cr30,000 per year with the one hex, and the Marquis with 8 gets Cr240,000 per year. A lot of this revenue may go back into the system, trying to improve technology and keep Iomaria in the Imperial fold. The knight is probably not doing a whole lot honestly for the Imperium - they get a terrain hex and a bit of income. The Marquis, a result of being pre-industrial, seems to imply that they will be wanting to increase production, and bump this world up to industrial. As such, the Marquis may be trying to subvert the castes, guilds and unions, as well as remove some of the red tape that makes this world have such a horrible efficiency.

How all this could impact the players is as always, up to how you play. There are a few built-in hooks here from what I can see:

1. emergency cargo - fighting the bureaucracy (sort of the Escape from Efate (Arden?) module that was published in a couple places. It had a flowchart that relied heavily on administrative skills to get past the bureaucracy. Think bribery was also a given and noting that higher law levels generally correspond to higher graft and corruption, bribery could well be a very useful skill.
2. Welcome to the Imperial Gala. As there are few ships that come through here, you can help represent the Imperium at the Marquis' party! Are there people in the population that really don't want to be in the Imperium? Is there a guerrilla movement behind the dour faces of some of the crowd? Or are you secretly in the Ine Givar yourself?
3. the SOLO rule sets give better prices if you get cargo outside the confines of the starport (a way to get you outside the port basically). You need to exit the port to look for cargo, maybe a bit of sight-seeing. Just how hard is it to get out of the port, and how hard to get back into the port?
4. You've been hired to find someone who was going to Iomaria. Does this person want to be found or are they captive? Are they on the dark side of the planet?
5. There is something unique and valuable over on the dark side of the planet. In perpetual darkness, the weather, flora and fauna are all strange. Also, I would think that the transition area, the twilight bands, would have turbulent weather due to the temperature differences.
6. Heavy storms as you arrive cause your ship to land in the dark side and enough damage so that take off is going to be a bit as the engineer does their engineering thing. Creatures in the permanent night!

My math is probably off, and the jump shadow obviously not to scale but just trying to get the general gist of things, and unless you have a mathematician of Traveller grognard, close enough for game use. Which is generally what we need at the table. While it is certainly a lot of fun to read those discussions over on COTI a lot are mostly "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" - interesting, but ultimately not really useful if you just want to have fun with a bunch of players are not going to double-check all the math and just play. But that is a discussion I've had here a few too many times perhaps! 

Finally, trying to figure out the day/night cycle is beyond me at the moment! A tidally locked planet that orbits in a few hours will do something like the image below, so while on the far side of the big planet, everything is really dark, transitioning in the orbit means that the side facing Tudor will get some light, so it is not in perpetual darkness as I was thinking. And when Iomaria is between the big planet and the sun, daylight of course. And the sunny side is not in perpetual light - it has a true day night sequence but will be a lot fast than Earth. I imagine light bulbs are in high demand!

Part 1 here

Part 2 here

Part 3

Part 4

Dangerous Destinations - Watch Tower

My bog book for Dangerous Destinations arrived, and I decided a quick roll-through to see what sort of thing shows up. The book is not exactly what I thought it would be, though it is exactly what it said it would be: "The definitive guide to creating intriguing and dynamic destinations for storytelling and fantasy roleplaying games". Think of it as a very complete generation system that lets you procedurally create a destination. So more of a random place generator that I was thinking, but in re-reading the campaign, that is what it said it was.

To begin with, we start with the prelude which is something evocative to flavor the end result, and help with fleshing out the results with a story. In reading some of the sample destinations generated by the rules, this prelude can make a dramatic difference in interpretation of the final results. 

Prelude: Fear - feeling that something threatening or dangerous is near. We'll have to figure out what this can be as we move along the process.

Previous Presence: Dumping ground. Area used to get rid of something: refuse, bodies, bad magic experiments...this was not a happy place before whatever ends up as our destination is present. 

Continued Presence: apparent - what was there has been replaced but there are obvious signs of the dumping grounds. So - whatever was getting dumped is not hidden or buried. Not a secret anyone is trying to keep.

Finally, the first big step - just what is our destination?

Destination Type: Watch Tower. Ahh, so this location will be a watch tower. Build on, over or nearby whatever was being dumped. And there is a sense of fear at this destination. Sadly, I am doing this post-Halloween!

• Watch Tower type: visual signal tower. Signal flags, or torches, or something. This also means that there should be similar watch towers in visual range. Depending on the terrain and height, that can be quite a variable distance.
• Height: 10-20'. Going with 10 + d10 I get a 17' tower. 
• Top Floor: 25x25 feet
• Construction: stand-alone tower. This is a sole tower: no support buildings or anything like that. I would assume there are barracks and facilities in the lower level.
• Condition: Dangerous - in serious disrepair. The tower is falling apart and not maintained. Never a good sign!
• Current effectiveness: effective, works as it should. Despite appearances, the signals are still getting through.
• Control - original people. That is, whoever is supposed to be here is still here.

Next, just where is this watch tower?

Environment - Plains

• Danger: environmental danger - intelligent monster. We'll have to roll on the plains intelligent monster table to see what that means.
• destination locality - deep plains, close to the heart of the plains. We'll have some travelling to get there.
• notable environmental feature: plateau, 390' high, 560 acres. Big plateau! And the watch tower is built on this big plateau in the middle of the plains. Meaning that if we stick the 17' tall watch tower near the edge of this plateau, it would be visible for several days journey at least in one direction.
• terrain feature: burrows of small animals. Could be they ar ethe ones that are causing the tower to be in such bad repair. Buit watch your foot - gopher holes are everywhere!
• Recent weather has been mild.
• Current weather (assume this really means when the players get there) is also mild. We could have had all sorts of bad weather: heavy snows, heavy rains, gale force winds. Oddly I rolled nice weather twice.
• Local fauna - no additional wildlife. Just those burrowing animals and that intelligent monster. Not that the players know any of this yet!
• Now we roll for our intelligent monster: an 18 yields a Pegasus! Just why is this intelligent Pegasus dangerous? Fortunately, I actually have a Pegasus mini. I think. Unfortunately, I don't get to play face to face much anymore!

And there we have the bare rolls. Putting this altogether, we can create our dangerous destination.

Years before, gnolls hunted the few Pegasus (Pegasi? Pegasuses?) for ritual sacrifice atop the Charn Plateau, near the heart of the Stratgeo Plains. A great pit was dug where the bodies were burned alive, great metal netting preventing flight and escape. Unfortunately for the gnolls, Tric, a wind god of the plains, took umbrage at this and destroyed most of the gnolls. The few that were left have been since hunted down by the remaining few Pegasus. These Pegasus have been driven mad by the experience and will not react normally. Years later. Gerth the Great of the Strageo Plains wanted to expand his tribe's territories. He established a watchtower on the edge of the Charn Plateau, armed with fire and smoke, to give alerts for other tribes who were not so happy about territorial expansion. Unfortunately, not realizing that gophers had no natural enemies on the plateau, the watchtower over the years has started to list somewhat alarmingly to one side.

Why are the players going there? Perhaps a neighboring tribe wants the tower destroyed but wants outsiders to do the deed so as to not start a plains war. Or Gerth's daughter Gertha, now tribe leader, has not heard from her crew at the tower, and needs someone to go and find out what is happening. The flying Pegasus is terrifying her tribe, and none will return there. Or the travelers just wander by, seeking shelter from this crazed Pegasus that seems intent on doing bodily harm to all bipeds on Charn Plateau.

via ArtStation

I do have at least one more post for Iomaria, and still need to heavily re-work my random table post as it was, well, too random!