Skirmish match - Centaurs vs Goblins vs Dwarves

Switched houses and we had a three-way match-up. What was interesting about this is both the other two played a lot of Warhammer (how they met actually) so have a good grasp of this sort of game. I'm just flailing about, but that's okay: we're having fun. But the Dwarven army readily beat the both of us: he had this thing called a shield wall and it made it difficult to hurt them. 

It also pointed out a few things in the mechanics: my centaur army was all of 6 single units, so no morale checks. But they are also more vulnerable. Sometimes the mass approach works better as there are more dice involved in the attacks. But the cheaper units, such as Goblins, are cheaper because they are not as effective. Having a harder time hitting and defending, and prone to routs, 2 squads ran off the table basically once half their unit was gone.

The game lasted longer for my Centaurs though. They first of all had a few attributes that gave them additional attacks, were faster than anyone else on the board, and the leader was really tough. He actually survived most of the Troll attacks unscathed. We started joking that the Troll was only after those flags. We had all ganged up on the marker we had to hold to win, and the Centaur leader finally got stunned, then the Dwarves killed him. The Dwarf player replaced one of his Dwarf minis with one that had a flag. We were teasing that poor Troll!

Then we played a bit of Death Test. My Orc lasted to the 2nd room, and the others were killed by the third room. I could have played it a bit safer as we were playing the first one that I've run through a few times, but decided the Orc was greedy. And those spiders in the 1st room about killed him!

We also had some game talk, and as the commute was 45 minutes, I've got an idea or two for the one player's Mycelian character. I am not convinced that our third player was as enamored with The Fantasy Trip / Melee as we are. For me it is two-fold: nostalgia as I played that way back when and still have my original books (well, Advanced Melee and Advanced Wizard. I either never had or lost the actual RPG book) and the rules for combat are straight-forward for the most part.

I still need to generate my cheat sheet for running the OSE game: I plan on actually using the referee screen as there are a lot of the rules there for easy access, so I won't have to be flipping through a book or PDF. I also want to print out useful NPC character cards. 

Using a 3x3 grid I'll be able to print 9 per sheet. One side is the TFT and OSE stats, the reverse being character details. Here are the top 3 (and only 3 so far!). The monk aka acrobat is 9th level as she has a training academy basically at the Nimble Priest Inn. Sadly, the closest to the unarmed combat II skill is that she can make tumbling attacks, inflicting 2x the regular damage. That is 1d6 normally, so she deals 2d6 damage when tumbling, with an additional +4 to hit if the opponent is unaware (sneak attack). Which good, and makes up for the staff being slow, so she attacks last when using that. Though I may home-rule the acrobat does not take that penalty.

OSE Game Prep Part 3

I've started looking into the various low-level OSE adventures I do have. Both for ideas as well as sprinkling about in the game as options. The OSE Kickstarter is slowly releasing several of the short adventures, some of which are low-level. And of course, Delve magazine has been publishing a short adventure per issue. And for whatever reason, I've backed a few other projects. What I need to do is, similar to my bibliographies for races/classes/careers, I also need a bibliography for the various games/adventures/whatnot. Though this does not need to be in a blog, but something I can have access to. Possibly even another Trello board where I can have columns based on the expected player levels.

Regardless of my incessant need to organize in theory vs my inability to do so in reality, I've been reading through the City building book by Kobold Press. I backed at the limited-edition level just to see how that would look. And I'll admit it is a beautiful book. There was a chapter devoted to magic use in cities, ranging from "everything everywhere all the time" to "only a select few". I am not a big fan of omnipresent magic in my games: may as well play SF as it is just about indistinguishable (thank you Authur C. Clark!) And magic in TFT vs OSE is a lot different in terms of application and usage, but similar enough that, unless you are a magic user, it does not really matter much. And my fantasy world, magic is there, and used, but not all the time. It is a valued resource but not necessarily ubiquitous.

I've also started to get some pricing for things. Interestingly, and probably because of the time frame both systems came into being, pricing is about the same between TFT & OSE. At least for weapons there is parity, so looks like there is a root price, probably stemming from the original D&D (which of course, OSE is based on). I've priced the healing potion at 60 gold. In TFT, a healing potion costs 150 silver, or 15 gold. As TFT only cures 1 point, and OSE does 1d6 + 1, averaging out to 4 for 4x the cost, so 60 gold. Pricey things, as a magic healing potion really should be! And the city book also has pricing for other things, and even takes into account relative scarcity. That is - in the farmlands, wheat is very common, so bread costs, for instance, will be far cheaper than in the middle of the desert where breads very ingredients are much more difficult to get. Not sure I want to go that far, though I do have some of the stores in Windemere Crossing being more expensive as they are more carefully made. Or scarcer, but being on a trade route, everything may possibly pass through at some point.

Which brings me to today's preparation: as the characters are coming in from a caravan, I'm going to see if my caravan tables actually work. I feel there may be some adjustments!

From another KS I backed. Guillaume Tavernier

First, where is the caravan coming from? I of course rolled no caravans for a few times until I had a west to east caravan. And I really have no idea what is west of Windemere Crossing. I've hinted at a couple nearby kingdoms, and do think I set something to the west, just not defined. I was leaving those details open-ended until they were needed in the game. so that I could do something for that game. Aha - our sheriff is a veteran from the Kingdom of Ismelkonia, which is westward. In fact - plot point! The sheriff keeps in touch, and one of the characters has been charged with bringing some communication to Ira Sprigbasher? Or perhaps they've made friends with the actual messenger, and he gets killed while trying to bring that message? Think the 2nd option or a variation on that.

Our eastward bound caravan is a medium-sized caravan with 10 animals, 12 wagons, 12 guards, 8 passengers (3 of which are our players' characters), and 9 types of goods. The goods consist of magic crystals, various herbs including the tobacco for our Goblin shopkeeper, various hardwoods, a few magical contraptions, crystals, Dwarven tools, some armor plating and a second load of crystals. With those goods, no wonder we have a dozen guards. And there are fewer animals than carts. So - are the animals in addition to the beasts pulling the carts? I think so as it makes sense that the caravan may be herding things along. Although one would think that would be in the trade goods table. And maybe a table for the types of animals?

With that in mind, I also think we should add caravan rumors: the caravan gets into town and there will be stories about what happened in its travels. I have a LOT of rumors books & PDFs, so will just grab one from the book of collected rumors by the apparently tireless Philip Reed. See - using those things I bought! The rumors start on page 6 and go through to page 206, so using an on-line one, I get 120. In one of the towns along the route, one of the guards saw what he called one of the Cursed Souls. A red-robed man had called out the guard's name, and the guard ran, fearing the touch. The Cursed Souls are a cult of demon worshippers. Who apparently wear red robes. And looks like I need at least enough information on the Red Robes in case the players start asking questions! A chance to expand out my pantheon to the other, demonic side! Fortunately, no satanic panic here. 

I also need to pull this info out into a simple game document. Perhaps not as complex as the Cowboy & Dino game got (it ended up being 80-odd pages, though a good deal of that was copy/paste). But I also need to finish prepping for the weekend's skirmish game. My lead centaur is painted at least, and I also have his card at least in electronic form.

OSE Game Prep, part 2

Looking through a book a bought a while ago, the Oracle Special Edition #1 & 2, I'm hoping I can run the low-level mine adventure in that book (which I've had for at least a couple of years now I think!) I've placed the salt mines several miles south in the mountains, and we now have a name, Crevice Creek, for the town. 

Though in reading through the creatures in the adventure, they are not what I consider low-level. Of course, this is originally written for 5E, and the mechanics there are designed to let the players do way too much without much in the way of risk. I'll probably scale down the threats a bit, other than the natural threats of mine exploration. And I actually have the Dwarf mine set from Archon - sadly this will be remote so I can't bring out those dungeon tiles. On the bright side, we figured out Owlbear.Rodeo's fog of war, so I should be able to load the maps there and show only the stuff they can see. Which is also why I like getting the books and PDFs :)

Of course, I'll be dropping off the characters in Windemere Crossing, tired from being in a caravan the last couple of weeks. But it will have given the characters some time to get to know each other so we're not starting at a fight in a tavern!

Of course, there should be some possibility of adventure in Windemere Crossing. It is a small town, though ripe with strangers passing through with the caravans. I am hoping that I can make the town more than just a set of dry descriptions. Knowing how I freeze up despite over-preparation, I'll have to have good notes actually handy. I just need to figure out what those good notes are!

I'm also going to try & give a bit more life the NPCs. Which is difficult for me: I can barely speak English half the time it feels like (I actually had speech therapy for a long time, so I tend to be very self-conscious about that) and so voices and accents are not a real option for me. What I'll try & do is either print or write up cards so I have them in front of me, and hopefully note some personality to that character. And maybe the stats (both TFT & OSE) on the back in case those are needed. This is why I have to prep in advance. One of these days I'll be more relaxed. At least I hope! Though I was actually relaxed in our Brass Rings game, which had little prep as it was basically a pick-up game when the GM could not be there a couple of weeks. We will return to that at some point (and you can search for Brass Rings on the word link thing to the right).

So: the rest of the prep is really creating some NPC cards that will print front & back so I have them ready, get the creatures tuned for a group of 3 2nd level characters that will not survive a 75 HP creature that does 1d8+4 damage! One hit and they are dead. I'll make sure that they have some healing draughts before they head in.

I do have a player hand-out that I think may work, just need to work that into the game at some point.

Which also gives them a map. Though I'll have to recreate this map in a format I can upload & use.

And now to downgrade the guardian:

As this guy will wipe out that party. Though truth be told, I need to also start figuring out how to play better with hirelings and all that. The game we're playing now, my Goblin Fugh has 6 guards/hirelings. I've not used them at all as I keep thinking it is the GM's role to do so. But I can have them do things for Fugh. Just not used to that even though that is fairly traditional. I don't recall hirelings in my college days, and Traveller NPCs tend to be engineers and ship crew rather than party members. I do have at least a picture of Fugh's group, just need to talk with the GM to add the character quirks and things to make them live. 

OSE Game prep, part 1

We've had a partial session 0 as the current game's GM just needed a small respite as he is running or playing in at least 3 games a week. Of course, he is also retired so does have a bit more time!

I presented my OSE bibliography for races and classes, though I did say up-front that many probably would not be allowed. And we're also leaning towards real old-school: races ARE classes. We've been rolling using Owlbear.rodeo as we like to see our rolls. I really miss doing this at a table as the fling of the dice and the anticipation of the results is part of the enjoyment I get out of playing games. Interestingly, one of the players picked a Mycelian, a mushroom person. The other so far is a human Druid, and in the next few days we'll have session 0.1 for the last player. 

I'll be starting them getting to Windemere Crossing, coming off a caravan passing through. As well as starting at level 2 so that they won't die if they get ht by an errant breeze blowing the wrong way!  

My preference for rolling up characters is straight rolls: you get what you get. I do soften that by allowing an extra roll (and they may make more than one until they get one higher than the lowest attribute) to use where they want. Part of that is my background with Traveller: CT was completely random, and you got what you got. And as I've said way too many times in this blog, this makes you play a character that may be different than you envisioned. Some people of course hate this and want to design every aspect of their character. Which is fine, just not my cup of tea. I like trying to figure out a character as it gets generated. I may have some ideas of what I want, but then the dice make the character their own. There is a story in those rolls!

Anyway, I may create additional character sheets for all those NPCs I created for Windemere Crossing. They are all so far set up for TFT, so while I'll still roll the dice, I may adjust a bit to match the stats that have values. Fortunately TFT is essentially a 3d6 game, so strength, dexterity & intelligence will be the same and I'll roll for the others. And assign classes and levels.

Let's take a look at the Sherrif of Windemere Crossing, Ira Sprigbasher from last year's character challenge.

He is basically a bad ass for TFT: he can really fight in hand-to-hand and can take a punch. I'll adjust his constitution so that he would get 2 extra HP per level to reflect that toughness-2 skill. Charisma and wisdom I'll roll as-is, getting 11 for Wisdom and 9 for Charisma. For a class, fighter, and as he is the sheriff, lawful is a good fit (though there is that backstory I've yet to figure out as to why he gets drunk every so often).  Being a veteran in TFT meant I should have boosted his STR to 14 (now that I am re-reading that post. And no one called me out on it!). I'll make him (rolls 2d6) a level 7 fighter. Rolling 7d8 I actually rolled well - 32HP, + the +2/level gives him 40 HP. Which is close to the max he could have.

A basic character sheet for Ira:

The characteristics are the same regardless of the system. From that post, and now I know why he gets drunk as well:

A veteran of a series of battles for the Kingdom of Ismelkonia, Ira took a working retirement as the sheriff of Windemere. Technically far outside the borders of the kingdom, he keeps in contact with the Prince via carefully worded messages passed on via the caravans heading west from Windemere. The Prince has a shrewd mind and wants to know what is going on outside his borders as well as inside.

Five years ago, when the half-Elf pirates showed up, it was made pointedly clear via a saber at his throat that Captain Nomehi Wiridae is the one really in charge of the town. Crossing her would be a death sentence. Despite that, she has made little change to the way the town is actually run but does take a small percentage of any trading that takes place in town. She also has Ira direct people to the Silver Pirate and has him look the other way for their more illicit activities.

Though this has been communicated to the Prince of the Kingdom of Ismelkonia, being outside the actual territory means there is little he can expect for aid. Only his deputy is really aware of this state of affairs. The pirates' touch on the town so far has been light as Nomehi stews a great deal from her curse and being stranded at the edge of the Kalor Desert.

When patrolling, Ira wears his army leathers and is a foreboding figure with a stern face. Yet he smiles at Rennor and she has helped him quell a few bar fights just by being there (as few people want to upset her father nor Rennor herself). A quiet speaking man, a raised eyebrow often is enough to stop a conversation from taking a turn to the worse. Every few weeks however, he gets drunk at the Nimble Priest Inn and stays there versus his rooms above the sheriffs' station near the north of town. The acolytes pray over him, knowing something is off but not sure what it is. Though the pirate Elves do seem to be overly curious when he does stay at the Nimble Priest Inn.

The weapons expertise I covered by giving him a +2 sword: any sword he uses will be at +2 pretty much. The unarmed combat, well, I'll have to read the rules on unarmed combat in both systems to see how that would work. I've always sucked at combats in RPGs, which is why I really like TFT as its combat is the Melee game, so well-grounded as an actual game. Shield expertise I'd rule similar to the sword: he can do shield bashes and things like that. Finally, literacy is automatic in OSE at his intelligence level.

Face to face skirmish!

After probably more than a year of talking about it, we finally got together for a face-to-face game. I of course lost, but it was a lot of fun. We played One Page Skirmish, and this was my first actual skirmish game. I had 2 units of skeletons, one 5 calvary unit, the other 10 foot soldiers. Against a rock-flinging troll (who managed to take out my calvary), several goblins and several hobgoblins, and finally a boss character that my skeleton foot soldiers did kill.

Took a while to set up the groups. Not having played before, it took a while to get my army. I did pick skeletons as I have a bunch from 40 years ago that I never actually used. I bought a lot of those miniatures back in the day thinking RPGs were more like skirmish games than actual role playing, so I wanted my armies! But now that I understand the mechanics a bit better after playing a few rounds, I can play with the armies and the point build system.

We also played a very short round of Death Test 2. We died in the 1st room: I pulled random fighters from the card deck and somehow picked some 36 point characters that killed us. Though we did make them bleed, and one enemy was 1 hit point away from death!

Then we played a couple rounds of Melee, again randomly pulling character cards and pitting them against each other. I came close to winning the 2nd game, but in the end it was simple attrition as my single character left could only damage the other when I rolled a 6 on 1d6. A club against armor & shield is not a lot of good! Of course, the character she was fighting could rarely hit, but when she did she always did damage. 

Regardless, it was a lot of fun. We managed to play with our toys - he brought terrain and minis, and I had the mats and minis. Next time we're playing at his house and will break in his game table. I don't think (and I could be wrong) he has run any games with anyone yet there. All I have to bring is myself - he has a LOT more miniatures and far more terrain. He used to be a wargamer, 40K and all that. Glad I managed to dodge that bullet: I'd be awash in plastic as well!

Characters that are not characters - the Nimble Inn of Windemere

Sometimes things can take on a character of their own. The USS Enterprise, Serenity, the Baxter Building (Marvel reference, and I am not even a big Marvel fan yet I still know that!) are all examples of things that take on more than just being a backdrop. Way back in college, my Scout's ship (an upgraded 200dTon ship with a TL17 AI - yeah, we did the gonzo things, and why did I stop?!) was as much of a character as Nathan Brazil (at the time I was a big Jack Chaulker fan, though in later years I think I found a lot of his stuff actually repetitive. Probably because I read most of what he wrote). 

I keep hoping that if I can get back to running a fun game of Traveller, we'll get to play long enough for them to become invested in their ship, their home in the stars. The onus is on me to make those games fun, and I am really hoping to get to run a series of Traveller games.

Same for fantasy games, where the advantage is that I can use the same town for any fantasy game really. Why I got really deep into Windemere Crossing and Fort Covenant. And waiting to see if Organic Towns can help make these towns change and grow.

And what, I hear you asking, sparked this thought? I was reading Delver 6, and there was an article for his Tavern rule book. This little 'zine is for players who decide to buy an inn or tavern and has various ways to produce profit. I realized this was the same thing as Organic Town purports to be, except writ small. And sometimes starting small is a good thing.

And then that brought the thought to mind that I really can treat both my tavern-to-be and towns as characters and have them go through the rules & processes to see what happens. I need to re-read the town & tavern rules, but my plan is to have a post dedicated to that growth on a regular basis. I need to have goals else I just sit here. I did a brief overview of that concept here, and the taverns rules are here. I know I have the PDF, and I need to see if I bought the actual paper copy. I do prefer to get both as I really prefer reading "real" books. Probably because I already spend way too much time in front of a screen (as I type this, in front of a screen). Ahh, and yes, it was with the other copies of Delver magazine. Note that I have a couple of auto-backs: 0-Hr for spaceships, and Delver as it is full of fun random things. That I really hope to use some day! 

First, we'll need to add a tavern to Windemere Crossing and Fort Covenant. As a reminder, here's the first post for Windemere Crossing. And in re-reading that, sad that we never got there: the kids I was playing with dropped out of gaming, so we never actually got there. But as I will be running some OSE games in the near future (and quite possibly some Fantasy Trip as well), and I just like world building, we'll just keep on building.

We already have 2 inns in Windemere we can expand on: the Nimble Priest Inn and the Silver Pirate Inn. Looking at the PDF of the Organic Towns book (I really want the physical book to arrive as it is hard to flip around in a PDF for me vs an open book with bookmarks. And I sit behind a computer all day). There are 3 levels for inns - I, II, III. I is basically a bunkhouse, II the more classic inn of most RPGs, and III a much richer guest estate. And taverns follow a similar step: Alehouse is your basic tavern, a tavern adds a private lounge and basement, and then the grand tavern is quite the hoity-toity place. Both give bonuses to the towns they are in. 

For this post, as it got a lot longer than I expected while writing it, we'll focus on the Nimble Inn.

The Nimble Priest Inn is a level II inn based on my original description: 

The Nimble Priest Inn. A large 2 story building with a basement below the main floor, The Nimble Priest is run by the acolytes of the Fair Lady. Fellow clerics and acolytes get a good discount, everyone else pays fair coin for the rooms. Rooms range from a few coppers to sleep in the stable above the riding mounts, 5 silvers for a shared room and breakfast, 1 gold for a single room and breakfast. The Fair Lady is a deity none of the characters would have heard of before. 

Thank goodness searching in posts actually works well - Google does do that well despite other faults they may have). Because of this inn, Windemere Crossing gains 0.5% population growth as well as an extra 20 SP (settlement points) a month. We also have a few other tidbits of info from various previous posts:

Every few weeks however, he (Ira Sprigbasher, the sheriff) gets drunk at the Nimble Priest Inn and stays there versus his rooms above the sheriffs' station near the north of town. The acolytes pray over him, knowing something is off but not sure what it is.

He (Ellis Newtonson) visits the Nimble Priest Inn every 3 days, lighting a candle in one of the back rooms that serves as a generic sanctuary. Each year he petitions for an actual temple, or at least using one of the many abandoned buildings for a sanctuary.

Zhou Smithensonne is the local High Priestess of the Followers of the Fair Lady. She runs the Nimble Priest Inn in Windemere. There is a small cadre of 5 other priestesses who assist with the operations, including Wren, who is a most excellent cook.

He (Timothy Dixon) goes by the Nimble Priest Inn once in a while, and if a bit flush with gold perhaps the Devilish Waters.

Guess these character challenges help me fill worlds full of NPCs. Re-reading about our priestess, I see I partially developed an entire sect for Tionna, one of my gods I've yet to detail out, other than she is the Goddess of All Living Things. Which is a pretty broad thing. Perhaps there are more levels and gods and goddesses in my pantheon I need to develop.

Okay, so once a month when we work on our settlement upgrades, we now have a slight population increase as well as more points to spend. I see I'll need a notebook with a summary page for the town, then worksheets for each building that helps that town and how to improve things. I also think if I do this right, I can generate a living history of the town for when players come into it (oh yeah, they just added those new floors to the Nimble Priest a few months back - said it makes the bards sound better). Of course, this is actually a fair amount of work to do on paper. And as I write software for a living, I can see a lot of potential to doing something to help track this a bit better, especially all the bonus SP and population points. I also see it as a very niche thing - the Kickstarter had 1600 backers, so even doubling that implies a very small number of people go this level of trouble. Sadly I already see the SQL schema but will refrain from starting another project. One of these days I will get back to my Traveller trade program (the original intent of this blog was to track that progress!). 

Though this is actually from WDW I think, it is close to how I see the outside of the Nimble Priest Inn

And while looking for taverns and inns, this posting from Imgur has some nice concept art that can help bring taverns to life.

And back to the original point: how is the Nimble Inn doing this month? Opening up the Taverns book, being a small inn, rolling 1d6 on that chart they have a 53 gold profit. There are modifiers we can apply based on things such as reputation and so forth. For reputation they are like home, so no change there. We can also check for any awards we may have received: Yiko's Medal of Superior Service which gives us another 3% so 4 more silver, 5 coppers. Looking at improvements from the Tavern book (which will fit into the Organic Town improvements I think), there is not much there for the Nimble Inn, Via Organic Towns, we could expand to the level III with very nice accommodations. However, that does not fit my idea of this martial artist priestess-led inn. They want inner wealth, not the trappings of the secular world. Taverns also has options for travelling bards, and story tellers (which was in Delver 6) to bring in more guests. For this month, they brought in Trimgell Sandsharp who tells the tale of the Night of the Two Headed Werewolf.

To the crowded room, Trimgell tells the tale of Taleck Driss, the thief, his partner Misun Essim another thief, Krale Jarrish the magic user and Yurk Brokestar, a fighter. The tale starts outside the walls of a monastery. Howls heard in the night, and the glimpse of the creature high on the city walls. The valiant group first encounters the werewolf in the at a wagon, eating a dead merchant (+4GP). While they wounded it (+2GP) Krale was killed in the fight. Chasing after the beast through the town, it was cornered at cliff's edge. Horribly, the two-headed beast split into 2 creatures - a wizard werewolf and a cleric (+4GP). then leapt into the darkness, leaving a trail of blood. Tracking the blood to the creture's lair, they found six kidnapped children! (+2GP). In the end the remaining adventurers killed both the evil cleric and his werewolf, saving the day and the children (+6GP). 

Adding all that up, there is another 16 gold. Rolling on yet another table, apparently despite the thrilling tale, the patrons were bored so we only double this to 32 gold. This brings the month's total to 76 gold, 4 silver and 5 coppers. 

Additionally this month, a wizard has come into town, looking for children with magical abilities. Rolling on that table, he finds plenty and plans on staying to train them (from Organic Towns).

I'll have to see about worksheets - I think Organic Towns has some, and I need to modify those or add to them for the Taverns rules. And I need to find my Windemere folder - I had printed out a good deal of this, and now need to add my worksheets and all this.

Finally, there are also some game hooks now for the Nimble Inn. We've got several characters, wandering bards telling tales, and possibly some adventure hooks. Fighting at the Nimble Inn seems a bit dangerous as those priestesses are quite adept with those quarterstaffs. They could see the drunken sheriff heading home and about to get waylaid. Perhaps Rennor Lurbuk gets in over her head, and if the adventurers rescue her, her family feels they owe them. And any magic users may want to train with the wizard if this is a period when they level up (my games I tend to do the level up mostly like TFT - you need to actually train and rest, they don't magically appear in the middle of an adventure. Though combat skills can as those are getting used, but learning new spells requires the resources and time).

Character Challenge 2023: 31 and 31/31: Traveller Navy

It is going to have to be a double feature today as I missed yesterday. And now 2 days... And since I got a cool little spaceship from 0-Hr, figured I can use that as my mini and get 2 Navy people for it, and maybe also some Traveller stats for the ship as a bonus. 

Imperial Close Escort Pounder's Luck and her shuttle

The Pounder's Luck was part of a squadron in a system siege when disaster struck. A mistaken command caused the ship to take fire, killing several of the gunnery crew. Ensign Silvers was relieved of duty following his actions. 

I am also going to use Book 5: High Guard as I've always liked that book. I've built a lot of useless ships over the years!

UPP: A7577A male, good social rank so that helps with the commissions and all that, though the getting in part he has no DMs (education and intelligence help there. But perhaps some education and see if we can get into OCS or something to help. Our Naval wannabe gets into the Naval Academy by the skin of his teeth and his social connections. Barely passing, he does pick up 2 education for a UPP of A7579A, but no honors. He also miraculously gains Vacc Suit-1, Navigation-1 and Engineering-1. Commissioned into the Imperial Navy and now 22, he is ready to start his career as an Ensign. Also, because of his social standing, he can choose which branch to join, and picks the Line. 

Ensign Vikto Silvers, Imperial Navy

A7677A, age 22

Vacc-Suit-2, Liaison-1, Engineering-1, Navigation-1, JoT-1

Coming from an upper-middle class family, Vikto joined the Imperial Navy after barely scraping by in the Naval Academy. In the 4 years he's been an officer, he has yet to get promoted or decorated despite having 2 military operations. Currently a bridge officer of the Pounder's Luck, he is a broad-shouldered man with close-cut brown hair. He takes his job seriously but does not seem to impress his senior officers. Unbeknown to him, the Imperial Navy is not going to renew his commission after his current tour.

Term 1 (22-25)

Year 1: Basic and Advanced Training

Looks like he was practicing in the voids of space as well as the close quarters of a ship, and gains Vacc Suit-2, Liaison-1. 

Year 2: Command, Strike

Having a vacc-2 skill, that gives him a DM for survival. Going to take that off and apply it to the decoration roll. He survives, but does not get a decoration other than the service ribbon. He is also not promoted but does pick up Jack-of-Trades-1 from the shipboard skills table. 

Year 3: Staff, Shore Duty

Stuck at a dirtside Naval port, he easily survives and still no decoration, nor can he be promoted as he is an officer. He does pick up +1 endurance - he ran a lot around the landing fields! UPP A7677A. 

Year 4: Command, Siege

I made it riskier, and he survived, but still no decoration! Nor a promotion, even though he picks up Bribery-1. He'd better learn to show he makes a good officer rather than learning to grease palms!

He actually failed to re-enlist, so he will be a young ensign in the time we're posting this character.

Lieutenant Anamara Gunch, Imperial Navy

AA7BC8, age 33 at time of death

Mechanical-2, Ship's Lasers-1, Ship's Missiles-1, Ship's Energy Wpns-1, Handgun-1, Electronics-1, Gravatics-1, Bribery-1, Gambling-1

Coming from a middle-class family, the quite brilliant Anamara graduated college with honors, but failed to get into medical school. Disillusioned, she joined the Imperial Navy and entered the Gunnery Branch. She really loves the big guns, and learned to use most ship weapons. A constant tinkerer, she honed her skills in several other areas and was known as the go-to person for repairing things. Recognized by the Navy for her abilities, she went to OCS and rose to the rank of lieutenant before her untimely death at the Siege of Arbiquest.

UPP: A87B88 female. A good deal smarter than Vikto, Anamara Gunch also goes to college, gains a considerable amount of education (maxed out that roll) and squeaks by with honors, UPP: A87BC8. Our stalwart graduate applies to medical school, but is rejected, and so joins the Imperial Navy as a Spacehand Recruit. The roll for branch selection puts her in the Gunnery branch (missed medical by 1!). 

Term 1 (22-25)

Year 1: Basic Training

She likes the big guns, and picks up Ship's Lasers-1, Ship's Missiles-1. 

Year 2: Siege

Barely surviving her first combat, she receives a MCUF (Meritorious Conduct Under Fire). Promoted to Spacehand Apprentice, she picks up +1 dexterity (which oddly helps her promotion rolls). UPP A97BC8. 

Year 3: Special Duty: Engineering School

Deciding to cross-train in engineering. She picks up Mechanical-1, Electronics-1, Gravatics-1, Engineering-1. Somehow, I made all 5's and 6's and she got ALL the skills. Usually I am lucky if I get 1. 

Year 4: Special Duty: Officer Candidate School

Recognized for her brilliance, she is sent to OCS. She is now an ensign, rank O1, in the Gunnery branch.

Term 2: (26-29)

Year 1: Staff, Patrol

While neither promoted nor decorated, she picks up Mechanical-2 from the shipboard life table. She is a tinkerer.

Year 2: Training

Sent back to training, she picks up Ship's Energy Wpns-1. Back to her love of shooting big guns. 

Year 3: Staff, Siege

She survives, picks up another MCUF and gets promoted to O2, Sublieutenant. Somehow, she picks up Bribery-1. Those staff positions must be awfully interesting!

Year 4: Shore Duty

No promotions (and officers can only get promoted once per term I think) and no decorations, nor skills. She languished at the base, taking it far too easy!

Term 3 (30-33)

Year 1: Staff, Patrol

She is promoted to O3, Lieutenant, and picks up another dexterity for UPP AA7BC8 which really puts her at near-heroic levels. 

Year 2: Command, Training

Finally put in a command position, she is posted to training. She picks up Handgun-1 - it is not always the size that matters!

Year 3: Staff, Shore Duty

On base, she picks up Gambling-1. She played a lot of games!

Year 4: Command, Siege

This is the year she dies...dang, and it was going so well! Perhaps her death is why Vikto is not still in the service - his actions caused the death of his crewmates!