Traveller Bounty Hunter, Session 2 Recap

After returning to Checkmate Acquistions headquarters for a brief nap and regroup, Shintari and Anastaisa head to the port. The class A starport on Zeng is a huge complex, though most of it is set up for the Imperial Navy and Scouts. Perhaps 10% of the actual port is for civilian traffic. 

They meet up with Charlie Michelson, who is running his 4 autobot cleaners across Annex 43. He is at first disappointed that the film crew for On The Hunt are not there, but Shintaro explains that they want to set things up and make sure the conversation goes smoothly and will be ready for recording and broadcasting later. They find that Charlie saw a blond woman and two men go through the Navy security gate. This particular gate is often used for Navy personnel returning from shore leave but is still guarded well as it does lead to the Imperial Navy's section of the port. Charlie said he has spoken with a Jan Voohikan, a Navy captain working the case. The blond woman and the two men did not look like Navy, and Charlie has seen a lot of Naval crewmen return to the base in all sorts of states. 

At this point, Mac, Wild Bill and Martha, the film crew, show up. Mac starts getting things moving while Bill sets up his records, and Martha sets the 3 camera drones to start getting some blocking and background shots of the starport annex. A small crowd gathers to watch the interview process. A few more Navy personnel show up at the security gate, including an officer or two at least. Charlie shares the autobot cleaners footage of the group entering the Navy base, but the footage does not give enough resolution to identify the group. They have low-res cameras and lidar to avoid people while cleaning floors, not for surveillance. Though now I am thinking that could make a good way to spy in public spaces in Traveller. 

During the discussion, Charlies lets them know that Lisa also works the same shift as he does, over in the OnePrint shop, a news and printing service. As the shop may have better security, they talk to her. It turns out that the shop sells local and regional tourist things, as well as having an extensive library of books. Anastaisa decides to get an actual printed volume of War and Peace, and while not getting the top-of-the-line acid-free paper, Smythe binding, pseudo-leather cover and satin ribbon, she does get the book maker to manufacture a decent book. At a cost of Cr15. Yes, my Traveller universe has Makers, but some are a bit smaller and make books. People in the future still like to have physical things. And I personally prefer real books (as I type on an electronic story...)

The security cameras from the shop only cover the shop area, though Linda does mention that the SPA cameras would have high resolution 3D imagery. And while I strongly hinted that between their admin and advocate skills they could probably get access to the recordings, the players decided that they were at a dead end. 

Sitting down and having a coffee, one Navy Lt. Pratricia Kern walks over. She lays it on the line: yes, Navy Intelligence would prefer to capture Katja Rigg themselves, they want her captured at all costs. Which is how the bounty got put out a day after the explosion. She lets them know that the two Naval guards are both being interrogated by her boss, Capt. Voohiken. They were bribed but not aware of Katja's ID: they thought she was just another Navy junky who wanted a quick peek at the shipyards. A few hundred credits and promise to be fast and she was in. An hour or so later she left, and not long past that the explosives took out the INS Far Stretch, the Imperial courier. Our group also notices one of Martha's drones perched up high. This area of the starport is probably 3 stories high, but those drones have 360-degree views with very high-definition cameras. They have done this before, and their commdots can be linked to the drones, so our bounty hunters are recording this conversation just in case. They are used to Martha recording things after several episodes of their show.

Handing them her card, Lt. Kern follows up that she will be available if they need more, and that her card would also aid in getting access to the SPA's security. She also gave them the list of civilian ships that have come and left in the last few days:

Incoming last 7 days (other than Navy or Scout ships):

• Free trader (type A2), Empress Natashia. Left night previous to explosion
• Subsidized merchant (type R) on charter from political group bringing in an executive party from a neighboring system to plead for aid. Still at the port. Giddy Up
• Subsidized merchant (type R) on free trade status, Fat Chance. Left day before the explosion

Leaving last 3 days:

• Seeker (type J). This ship may be on a trade mission or may be prospecting on the moon. Hopper, heading to the Belt in the Zeng system
• Free trader (type A1 ), Empress Natashia. Left night previous to explosion. Destinatin: Agdarmi
• Far trader (type A2) leaving system, Empress Brooke. Had been there almost 2 weeks. Destination: Oriryu

• Subsidized merchant (type R) on subsidized merchant route.  Carrying mail and loading up on aid supplies. Gilded Princess, heading to Sorel

And that is where we left that session.

Unfortunately, despite Zeng being fleshed out in my head pretty well, I don't think I am getting the "feel" across to the players. And they do prefer fantasy or more pulp science fiction games, so I am thinking as much as I enjoy it, they are not enjoying it as well. Dry, rather than juicy was mentioned. Part of this is that every time I run Traveller with the current group (even years before) they always play the straightlaced Imperial citizens. Even as bounty hunters, they don't want to carry weapons, even though the stunners are allowed in the port (well, they do have their stun sticks). Of course, in a high-tech world like Zeng, and especially in the port, there are cameras and things. So getting caught is a lot different than a fantasy game. In the end it is my failing - while I really enjoy Traveller, both MTU & OTU, the wide divergence of play style from fantasy RPGs, as well as the lack of an established sense of what the technology has available, detracts from that. For those who play Traveller a lot, there would be a lot more digging into the differences in the tech levels, how to use their skills to better things, and all that stuff. I think if I run Traveller again, I'd much prefer the players to generate not only their characters, but also at least describe their home worlds and systems. None of them want to actually roll up the worlds (and I'd go full Book 6 on that!), but from the descriptions I can establish the details. And then we could establish at least that corner of the universe and perhaps they would "understand" at least that MTU. Unless they wanted to roll up the system as well, but this group is NOT a crunchy rules group. We play a lot of rules-light games. I'd really like to get back to games and get better at understanding the rules, as for me that is a lot of the fun. And while we do play for much longer than the previous 1-to-2-month cycle, we rarely go back to an earlier game. We talk about it a lot, but everyone one keeps getting more games, and wants to play and run that. One of the reasons I stopped buying games - I want to get good at the ones I have. I prefer a more in-depth approach to a lot of things (probably one of the reasons I write software: it is ALL details!) Just a difference in how we play and enjoy the games. Which does make for some fun games, and I appreciate getting to play at all. 

I did do a survey of our group using the types of players as described in Robin's Laws:

3/4 picked "the story teller", much more interested in telling a story and not preoccupied with XP or levels: The Storyteller: Like the method actor, is more attuned to the roleplaying side and less interested in XP or levels. More interested in taking part of a fun narrative that feels like a book or movie than strict identification of his character. Quick to compromise if it moves the story forward. The other was a butt-kicker: The Butt-Kicker: wants to let off steam with a little old-fashioned vicarious mayhem. Picks a simple, combat-ready character whether or not that is the best route to power. Wants to let off steam and prove his superiority over all who would challenge him. May or may not care about the rules as long as he gets plenty of chances to clobber things.

Bottom line: I need a better way of running Traveller for this group. The way I played in college (where 3 of the 5 of us all had dog-eared copies of the game as it was our primary game we played for years) does not work here as that group knew Traveller and we all played or ran the game pretty much the same way as each other. At a guess, the first several sessions may have been "dry" but as we played most Fridays for 5-8 hours (yeah, I used to stay up late!) we all figured out Traveller. Heck - one of the players created an Aslan font. And this was in the early 80s, so way before the internet gave us all these cool tools. Another player actually had Vargr custom tags - yes, we were really into Traveller! Which goes back to my really wanting to play a system enough so that I can understand the rules. And I actually like crunchy rules (again, I write software. It is also all crunchy. Been doing that for 40+ years so apparently, I do like crunch!)