Setup
There was a bit of housekeeping to set things up, characters 4 and 7 were picked up, so let's give a bit more information from the players.
Bounty Hunter support specialist Shintaro Ruye has a heavy autopistol and a stun gun. I tried to get him a stunner, but the player wants a shotgun that shoot bean bags basically to knock people out.
UPP 989577 age 29, Bounty Hunter Support, Rank2
Skills: Slug Pistol-2, Investigate-1, Computer-1, Admin-1, Deception (Lies-1), Electronics-0, Streetwise-0, Broker-0, Advocate-0
Cr10100, Auto Pistol, shotgun w/stun bags, Cloth armor
Bondswoman Anastasia Rozhenko is proud of her Deception (Disguise-0) and apparently carries a wig with her most of the time. She wears a cloth duster over a flak vest a lot of the time as well. And for some reason, no idea what guns she has!
UPP: 7889B6 age 34, Rank 4, 4 Terms, Trust 4
Skills: Advocate-1, Melee (Martial Art-1), Investigate-1, Remote Operations-1, Carouse-1, Deception (Disguise-0), Gun Combat (Energy Wpn-1, Slug Pistol-1), Medic-0, Streetwise-0
Cr30,000, Gun, Flak Vest, Cloth Duster
They are still employed by Checkmate Acquisitions, a bounty hunting company situated on Zeng. With a population of only about 10,000, you may be wondering why Zeng? Beyond the metagaming aspect of me picking a random planet in a system I've never played in again, of course! Zeng is the capital of the Zeng subsector, and the class A port has a huge Naval component as well as a a large Scout base. There are almost 10,000 service personnel who move through Zeng on a yearly basis as their terms move them from system to system. Communication is top-notch for the sector, and so our bounty crew is based here.
Johanne Von Num owns Checkmate Acquisitions, but with the fame of our hunters becoming a subsector phenomena from the On The Hunt holo-series (brought to you by Instellarms, LIC) bringing in even more revenue, they have managed to purchase an older police pursuit ship. Which the players have yet to name!
The police version retains the Tachikaze name but ditches the heavy weapons and armor to focus fully on speed and maneuverability. There are several of these law enforcement ships in service throughout the Zeng subsector as they excel at their pursuit and interception role. They can chase down just about anything heavier than a fighter, but are lightly armed and fairly fragile. This means that they are excellent for law enforcement against common civilians and merchants, but must depend on backup in order to bring more serious criminals to heel.
300 tons, TL 13
Jump Drive D: Jump 2 25 60 (2xjump 1, 1x jump 2)
Man Drive E: Man 5 9
Power Plant E: 16 20 (4 weeks)
Bridge 20
Model 2 Computer
Basic Military Sensor Specs 2
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| Kintaro from 0-Hr |
I'll see about the Traveller details in a later post, but we are handwaving big chunks of what I consider basic Traveller game mechanics. I feel my players would rather fall into a pit trap than deal with the details of managing the details. The handwave is that between the product placement for Instellarms and the residuals of the popular show, we'll just keep the high cost of starship ownership in the background. Should we decide to play more than what is assumed to be a 3-session deal, we will start layering in those details. Probably via an NPC so it will be me, but they will be aware of more. But my breakdown of the ship-to-be-named will cover operating costs (and it is a 30-year-old ship. so not brand new).
Our holovid crew consists of the 3 people mentioned in the set-up post though they were only background in the office when we finally got to the start of the session.
The Job Starts
The explosion was 2 nights ago, and Johanne finally has the information needed, and the license, to go after our fugitive Katja Riggs. Getting Anastasia and Shintaro off the sofa, our two decide to check in on one of their known sources, a Miss Dawson.
Miss Dawson is a companion for hire, who is usually available at the Star Dwellers Bar and Lounge. Taking the underground walks, it is not too far from their headquarters. Which, like 80% of the population, lives in Startown. The transient population of Zeng is about 10x the locals.
Finding her at her usual haunt, they start talking with her and find that her friend Charlie Michelson, a custodian at the starport in Annex 43, "saw something he should not have." While Anastasia was questioning the diminutive Dawson, Shintaro noticed two goons watching with a bit more than the usual interest in the conversation. Paying for their drinks, they use a bit of a ruse to exit the bar, and noticing that they are being followed, go up the street to the Star Motel, a cheap hotel frequented by Navy personnel on shore leave. There is much discussion and planning as to what to do, but in the end, they took a simpler route. Anastasia puts on the far-too-small clothing of Miss Dawson and dons her wig. Hoping to be a distraction while Shintaro goes out the back and grabs a handy lead pipe. No one questions why a TL-C world has a lead pipe lying around, but this is not the nicest of neighborhoods. It really should be some lightweight composite pipe, but that just does pack the same punch. And pretty sure plumbing is not made of crystaliron...
Anastasia horribly fails her deception/disguise roll, but is distracting enough as is, especially as the dress starts to tear for her first (and only - this is a PG-17 game!) wardrobe malfunction. But it is enough for Shintaro to come up behind one the thugs and knock him down, to stand on top while Anastasia uses her martial arts to successfully take the other thug down.
While they want answers, the thugs were singularly unhelpful in giving them any information, and eventually they are let go.
Returning to the Star Motel, they give Miss Dawson Cr25 to pay for the dress, and the ever-helpful woman mentions that the Ine Givar would never just stay on the planet after something like that.
Calling her friend Charlie, the janitor who runs 4 auto-cleaner drones on the night shift, they make plans to interview him in the morning. They will bring along the camera crew as he is a huge fan, and his parents on Quirinal would love to see him on the holoseries. Of course, between editing and transit time, it will be months before the episode on Katja Riggs even airs, let alone gets transported 4 parsecs away!
And session 1, done!
I've mentioned before that running Traveller is a bit harder than most games to run. Not for the mechanics, but for the "feel". The OTU is a distinct type of universe, and though Zeng is TL-C, they've been staying inside as the very thin atmosphere if nitrogen trichloride is not particularly appealing, even with compressor/filter masks! And being that high tech, the entire city is on grav plates, so the 0.5G that the planet has is not noticed. We did comment on the sun being far larger than ours is as they are all of .25AU or so away from the M3 star. And the day sis a 20 hour day, but other than that, it mostly feels like just being here on Earth.
I'll have to try and get some underground future city pictures to help, but by golly, we are going to get into a spaceship as this IS Traveller, not On the Hunt (brought to you by Instellarms, LIC). Have to make sure that they do some product placement while interviewing Charlie next week! Meaning I need to get some products ready :)
I'll also get more details about the potential worlds they can go to. They do have the investigation skill but we've been light on actual skill usage. Investigate: The Investigate skill incorporates keen
observation, forensics, and detailed analysis. Which really does not apply in this scenario much...
Finally, including the cover to the Clement Sector rules. The starport and startown could look like this but probably not. I'll have to get some good pictures for next time to help them get a feel for the science fiction.
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