Spelunking my library part 3: Finishing college

I actually still have a few note pads of forms that were 3rd party character sheets, the old Astrogators Guide which is not even full, and a few other forms and things.

Old school Traveller Character Sheets

The box is now a plastic bin

In college I did not have a lot of money, so could only get a few things, Even after I stopped most of my gaming, I still managed to add a few things. The random Traveller magazine, or game that may fit in with Traveller. While not actively playing, I was still drawing maps, making up spaceships, and generally spending some time in Traveller-space.

But all things come to an end, and in my junior year of college I got married and when I graduated, my cardboard box of game stuff, along with the handmade wooden box full of minis, followed me to North Carolina, to stay in the closet until I got divorced a couple of years later. And then I found the big reprint book of the Alien Races, and realized I really missed Traveller. But that is a story for the next post!

never played it but I liked the cover - same guy who drew/write the Mechanoids (which I did buy during this period as well and just got the reprint book, being nostalgic and all that)

A starport in the Astrogators Guide

lower decks of an armed merchant

upper decks of the armed merchant. I do believe the deck plans are a lot larger than the 400dtons, even with the 10% slosh space!

One of the few Traveller magazines I have other than a dozen or so JTAS. I miss those days - everything today is PDF. Sure, cheaper, but you can't put in a box to pull out decades later! But reading a magazine just seems so much better than reading a PDF.

OSE Session 7 - To The Glade

"Well," said the witch, "I know nothing about this earth stone master Enoki. Mayhaps, if it were stolen in the desert, the desert rather than the mountains may be a better place to search? As for the willow wisps, they be fey. Neither evil nor good, but mischievous like most fey. They's as soon walk you off a cliff in the middle of the night as take you to a pile of riches. I tell 'em to shoo usually and pay them no mind. But they can be tricksy so just keep yer wits about ye. And yes, I've heard tales of that centaur up the mountain. Some sort of druid I've heard. Shay, the potion peddler, has some truck with him. She should be up in the morning as I hired her to gather some willow's beard mushrooms up the mountain. If you'uns will take her up there and guard her, and help with the haul, I'll see about brewing you a healing draught to help in yer travels." Her face seemed to flicker a moment, noticed only by Quinby. "Now shoo, shoo! An old lady needs her beauty sleep you know!" and she pressed the group out of the small house and into the night.

"Did anyone else see her face shift?" asked Quinby. No one else had noticed, and despite his question, the group decided to stay the night in the pole barn behind the house, also dug into the hill a bit. The night was clear, the stars sparkling above, and through the trees, the lights of Windemere Crossing could just barely be made out down at the bottom of the hills. The leaves had already fallen at this height, the bare branches stark against the stars.

Though the night was cold, the hay made both a warm and comfortable bed. Rennor settled into a corner, pulling what looked to be an old goat blanket over her. Enoki found the back corner of the pole barn, dug under the hill a bit, to be warm enough and settled down, mycelium digging into the fecund dirt. Quinby played the stolen lute a bit to the amazement of the seven goats sharing the barn. Bessie, the milk goat, seemed particularly entranced by his playing wand her head bobbed in time to the music. Despite wanting to have a watch overnight, the adventurers all fell into a deep sleep, one of the best sleeps they have had in weeks. Despite Rennor's surprisingly loud snores from the corner hay pile.

Sharn the potion peddler

The next morning, Bellatrix brought out a stack of pancakes almost as tall as Quinby. Sharn was a beuatifu Orc who helped set up the outside table. Breakfast turned out to be nasty as the Halfling, lacking in manners despite his ability to charm people, managed to get his entire hand in the crock of syrup. And failed miserably trying to steal Bellatrix's handkerchief again. 

"Now you be careful," the witch said, "as there are brigands this time of year. You're going to have some nice but cold weather, I feel it in my bones."

The group, sated from pancakes but sadly lacking the handkerchief, started up the mountain. Rennor was heading back to town, loathe to miss her training. "Be a good protector," said Enoki as she headed back down the mountain as they headed in the opposite direction.

Baldur asked Sharn a bit about herself, and they found some more details about Anne's Farm. It is about two days hard walk southwest of Windemere Crossing. There is a stone with a mark on it that always has fresh water, and the woods are taking back what was once theirs. The group started to ask if perhaps she would be something of a caretaker should they buy that farm. She was shy but was at least thinking about it.

During their talking and past lunch, Quinby noticed two men crouched ahead of them on the path. In a loud voice, he said "I think there are two men up there going to the bathroom." The rest of the group saw the two men, one armed with a sword, and the other a stout cudgel, come out from the bushes.

"Hello," said Baldur, "what are you doing?"

"There's a toll. Winter is coming and we need to get ready so we don't starve. And getting up the mountain here, we've a toll you need to pay."

Enoki moves a lot faster than one would expect a walking mushroom to move and comes right up to the pair. "You really don't want to do this," he said, and spread spores to the two. The one with the sword gets a dumbfounded expression on his face. The other looks at his companion, "Wayne, what's got into you? Wayne?". Seeing the swordsman just standing there, sword almost dropping from his hand, Earl of the cudgel runs off (having failed his morale roll). 

Enoki leans close to the remaining brigand, and in a harsh voice says, "You are not picking a good life choice." The tone in the man's head triggered a deep fear, and he will need to wash his britches as soon as he can. I believe Baldur adds that one must take care of oneself but not at the expense of others, and hard work is better than thieving. 

Wayne is released and runs away, and the group continues their journey to the glade where Shar knows the willow's beard grows. They approach the place near nightfall. Off to their left, glowing perhaps from that last ray of sunlight falling, was a mushroom circle. A slick stepping stone crossed the creek that dropped off into a large pond. Quinby hopped right across as did Sharn. However, both Baldur and Enoki slipped, almost feeling as though they were pushed. Tinkling laughter could be heard as they got dunked into the surprisingly deep pond. 

While Baldur clambered out, Enoki dove a bit deeper, searching for some rich pond silt to add to his dirt pile. A cold, small hand seemed to guide him to a particularly thick and rich bit of mud. Grabbing the mud, he made his way back the surface. Cold and wet, Sharn hurried them up to the campsite and they soon had a fire going. While eating and drying out their clothes. a beautiful woman walked up from the path, her black hair shining as if wet. 

"Are you travelers from far lands? Can you tell me stories?" Startled, the group thinks for a moment, then Quinby tells the beautiful tale of how Halflings came into the world. Sadly, I did not write down the player's tale as it was quite good. But basically, a small man fell in love with a star, and somehow later falling stars made the half-men, or Halflings. Really wish we had recorded that or something, but the player came up with this long tale on the fly. Now that is role playing!

And we closed the session there. Due to that story, their water bottles will be full of fresh water for the next 4 days no matter how much they use. And Enoki will find that for the next 4 days as well, a good night's sleep with that river mud will heal an extra HP per day.

NPCs Met

Sharn - the potion peddling Orc

Earl and Wayne - ineffective brigands

Verey Ambervale, the Naied who lives in that pond they fell in

The Glade

Spelunking my library part 2: Expanded Character Books and More

Once I was actually playing Traveller, I also started getting more books. Book 4 was nice with the expanded character generation, but not having any military experience, while I enjoyed creating the expanded characters the rest of that books was not really used other than having a lot more weapons to choose from. High Guard Book 5, though, is falling apart as I read and used that so much. I built so many ships that were probably very impractical. Yet it was something I greatly enjoyed. And Scout Book 6 opened up the entire system - no longer limited to the home world but we could create sweeping vistas of solar systems full of planets, moons, gas giants and planetoid belts. While a lot of the theory that went into that book may no longer hold true, it really does not matter as the rules of what is possible keeps changing. Hot gas giants inside the habitable zone of a star, giant Earth-type planets, and too many planets in an orbit are just some of the things we (well, not me so that is a royal we!) keep finding as we get a better view of the universe around us. And for me - it is a game so as long as it is fun and consistent, then that is what wins for me! Those books kept me occupied for years even when I was not in a gaming group. One of the best parts of Traveller for me is the sheer breadth of solo-play available. One of the reasons my signature on COTI mentions using T5 as a toolbox: all the versions have so many things you can do without really needing a GM or other players. Though eventually that does pale if you are not using it in some fashion. Which is why I am happy to be able play still and share stuff over on COTI.

Hand drawn on graph paper, then cut out and glued to another sheet of paper. Obviously I have always loved spaceships!

I was also delving into the non-GDW books: Lees' Guide, SORAG, Scouts and Merchants. I sucked up all the books I could find. I had a subscription to the JTAS and always looked forward to the mailer as well as the magazine. Back then, the mailer usually had some TAS form on it which was a really nice touch. That may have been one of the reasons I love physical props and make in-game ID cards that double as a character sheet for my players. 

I also picked up Striker in those years. While never playing the tactical skirmish game, just as with High Guard I build a LOT of grav vehicles and things. Most were never practical, but I enjoyed making up grav tanks that would, in a real game, probably be destroyed way too fast. But it was fun. And now I want to pull that box out and see about making vehicles again! The only one I remember making was a grav speeder for my Scout character. Visually it was reminiscent of the police car from Bladerunner, just heavily armed and armored. It fit in his 200-ton custom Scout craft he got for doing something that the Imperium really, really appreciated. 

I also started getting the 15mm Martian Metal minis. I have quite a lot of those, badly painted. Along with the 15mm scale air/raft. 

the deluxe box was starting to overflow with Traveller goodness! And now I realize I never got High Passage 1 in print - need to check to see if that is on one of the CDs!

By the time I stopped playing Traveller in college (girls seemed much more interesting, and yes, I was a very late bloomer!) that deluxe box was about full: books 0-6, along with SORAG, Merchants and Merchandise, Scouts and Assassins (as I guess everyone likes playing as assassin) and a few copies of the JTAS. High Passage which as FASA's version of the JTAS  

I also picked up a few other games, Melee and Wizard and a bunch of those microgames which I no longer have. For some reason, liking Melee & Wizard, I got the Advanced Wizard and Melee books, but never got the actual RPG book. 

Sadly, the game stuff was put up in a closet, the moved to another closet as I moved after college, and moved again when I was getting divorced. But I broke it out, and had somehow managed to keep all those books, as well as a box I had made for the minis I had bought in high school and college.

Going through some of the folders and notebooks I still have, I found a lot of photocopies of blank world and planet maps. My father made a bunch of copies for me of a lot of Traveller stuff. This was back in the early 80s and while he had no idea what I was doing, and neither did I, my parents were very supportive of me (well, until I moved in with my girlfriend, then that caused a rift that took a decade or more to repair!) I also had his old manual typewriter, so a lot was typed up to make it look better :)

Original hand-drawn and typed D'Arlee Subsector

Using Travellermap API. Though I really like my old one

I had forgotten so much of the stuff I still have. And it is really a blast going through notebooks that have been with me for over 40 years and I still get enjoyment out of them. And for me, that is the reason I love RPGs. While yes, they are often escapism and all that, being the late bloomer as mentioned, I am so much more comfortable in my own head than around people. And games let me explore any number of worlds and universes, and even, as per this blog, revisit ones I've not been to in years.

And yes, there is much more spelunking to do. I may have to create an index for the books that I do have. While I certainly remember the main books, those High Guard periodicals sort of surprised me as I had forgotten about them. And when I dig back into that magic box of memories, I wonder what else will surprise me?

OSE Session 6: To The Witch

"Well," said Alore Edris, "I can take that lot of silks from you. These appear to be fine silks, possibly from Quoro to the west. Fine silk works there. I often get my silks from there." The tall wizard gestured and a Goblin took the crates and started hauling them to the back of her well-lit store. Behind her, the 12-foot-tall cases were filled with books, scrolls and parchments. Higher up were a bevy of hats topped the shelfs, and floating in various well-lit spots beautifully designed clothes were on magically lifted racks. The adventurers had come here to sell off the silks found in the barrows. 

Baldur had already replaced his leather armor, and Quinby asked the stern looking woman if she dealt in armor. "Well," she replied, "not armor per se, but I can craft some magic armor from those silks that may be a more fitting armor for one of your stature and style." 

"Cost is no object" said the kinder, his eyes on the hats above. "And, may I see that beret above?" His glee was barely in control as the hat floated down to him with a quick gesture. "And can you make my armor match this? And" his lit up even more as a thought crossed his mind, "could you make this a hat of holding?" 

The wizard looked down at the Halfling, her hands rubbing her silk scarf. "Yes, but that will take a bit longer than the 3 weeks for the armor. Assuming I can get the ingredients, it will be about 6 weeks. And with the hat, it won't be quite as large as your traditional bag of holding,  but should hold a fair amount."

There was no bargaining as none of the adventurers had much in the way of financial wits. 500 gold later, the deal was struck for the armor to be ready on the 15th of Reedwryme, and the hat by the end of that same month, about 2 weeks later. "I should have it all by the Festival of the Green Man" she said as she finished up her measurements of the thief.

the beret and matching silk armor

Offering her the python eyes and teeth, she shuddered a bit and said, "You may want to try selling those to old Bellatrix, the witch up in the hills. I have no use for that sort of magic ingredient. Rennor can probably take you up there, she and Sharn often visit the old woman." 

Our crew leaves the store and heads to the town square, in search of the teenaged Rennor.

Rennor was watching the spearmen train in front of the barracks, the sun high overhead. While mimicking the motions, she felt a light tap on her elbow, and looking down, sees an open bag with a python eye staring at her. A quick intake of breath and she sees the Druid, the thief and the Mycelium.

"We hear you may be able to take us to Bellatrix - think she could use these?" asks Quinby. 

"She's a scary old witch, but she may be able to use those." The Orc looks up in the sky and notes the sun. "We could leave now and get there about dusk. There are some good places to camp nearby."

Baldur speaks, asking about Bellatrix. "What makes her so scary? Has she harmed anyone or caused mischief?" Quinby blurts out "Does she eat children?"

Rennor shook her head at the Halfling, replying "She's been here since before Windemere Crossing started growing again. Years ago, a couple of boys were bullying some other kid. She cursed the bullies, and ever since then, their pants never stay up! They left not long after according to my dad. But she has an evil eye I've heard, so I never look her straight in the face. My friend Sharn, she's a potion peddler, will probably be there tomorrow. She's at the stables right now, probably getting reading lessons. Da is big on education. Are you ready now - I can take you. For a price...".

Quinby holds out a handful of gold. Eyes wide, Rennor just takes a single gold saying that would be enough. They leave town through the east gate, which is still under construction. Soon they leave the noises of the town behind, moving south through the town farmlands. Eventually, much to Baldur's relief, they are in the hilly scrublands that lead up into the mountains.

A few hours later, moving through rougher hills, with the trees starting to lose their leaves, they hear a rustling, windy sound. Up the path, maybe 150 yards ahead, coming against the wind are 2 dust devils with swirling leaves caught up. As they get closer, they realize that the two dust devils are going against the winds, and there are whispers and voices in the twirling columns of leaves.

"So hungry" says one, the other responding, "And there is food ahead." Baldur recognizes the leaflings from his days in the grove. These spirits, mere shadows of a dryad, are hungry for life. They feed on the life force of living creatures. Baldur asks what these creatures want. "Food - and you are food."

"Ahh, if I should give you some of my life force, would you let us pass?" asks the Druid. The susurrus of the leaves goes on, and one says "We are not sure we can hold back." The Leaflings approach. Out of the blue, our thief takes out his stolen lute and starts playing very badly. "Hurts!" says one of the Leaflings, and rapidly leaves the path. Quinby looked sad, but Enoki consoled him: "It is off to get more of its friends to hear your playing. It is a good thing." Smiling, Quinby is about to start playing again when Baldur stops and asks the Leafling again, "Will you let us pass if I give some of my life to you?" The Leafling hesitates, but as Quinby's fingers approach the lute strings, it too runs off. 

Rennor, quiet throughout this encounter, shakes her head. "I've never seen one of those before!" And they proceed up the path. 

Nearing dusk, the see a house built into the hill, a neat garden in front. In the light, the walls look like gingerbread. Of course Quinby licks the shale walls, disappointed that they are in fact not gingerbread. There is some noise from within the house, and an old, hunched over woman flings open the door.

"Wat are you doing here? And quit licking my house young man!" The group sees your typical witch from the stories: long bent nose with a mole on the tip, black frumpy garments, and peaked hat looking like it was just thrown on. 

"Ahh, is that you young Rennor? What brings you out at this time of day? Getting too long in the day for you to get back to you father before dark?"

A brief introduction and the guests enter the house. A large cauldron is bubbling in the center of the room, and Bellatrix Grimsbane, the witch, eyes the halfling then the pot. There is a some discussion (forgive me - I am tired and did not write down a lot of conversation) and a deal is made to camp out behind the house for the night as Sharn will be there, and between the somewhat gruesome python and other parts of dead creatures, a deal is struck to exchange a healing potion for going with Sharn for the supplies needed.

Enoki did ask 3 questions, which I've yet to formulate any replies to:

and ask if she knows about the druid centaur...if she has a way to track the "stone", and if she knows anything about willow wisps. I'll some dialog prepared for next week as I've already got what I think she will say.

The thief actually leveled up, but the other characters have a bit further to go. OSE does not have equal levels by class, but hopefully that is a bit balanced by the skills and abilities. And as well generally play fairly rules light, a lot of that really does not matter all that much. But I would like to get the other 2 levelled up but also don't want to just heap on gold and XP. But they will get there!

The Quick Recap

They did some shopping, paid for armor and a hat of holding, found the witch may want those odd things and was told Rennor knoew the way. They find her, and have an encounter with Leaflings on the way up to the witch. They meet her, and make a deal for a healing potion.

NPCs and Encounters

Rennor - they have met the Orc teenaager before

Alore Edris, wizard owner ofAlore Edris' Shoppe

Bellatrix Grimsbane, a witch on the mountain

Leaflings, a weak and hungry sprite of swirling leaves. That does not like Quinby's music. From the fantastic Monster Overhaul (it was a random Fall encounter)

Bellatrix Grimsbane

The players know this though their characters do not. Part of our self-imposed 30 day RPG challenge. It came from this picture when I was looking for witch characters. And it tickled me.

“Aye, an’ there be an evil witch who lives up in that Whitecona Grove. She got herself an evil eye and can curse ye as soon as look at ye. Old and crook-backed, she makes poisons and eats little ‘uns”. Overheard at the Nimble Priest Inn, the staff merely look like Old Gretchen is in her drinks again. Further research will reveal that there is an older woman who lives up in the grove, been there for as long as anyone can remember. Even longer in fact. But behind the scenes, there have been a series of Bellatrix Grimsbane over the decades. Always a witch, and usually more attuned to healing and love potions more than poisons, but she also has a wide range of poisons, some very specific in their application. The current Bellatrix works closely with Sharn, the potion peddler. Bellatrix has the facilities to make some of the potions that, as a traveling potion maker, the Orc cannot make on her own. Sharn brings in herbs and plants and other things that are not available near the Grove.

Bellatrix Grimsbane is more a title bestowed centuries ago, and each witch will train the following one. Usually someone ends up being at the right place at the right time so that there has been an uninterrupted Bellatrix for more than 300 years. One of the first cantrips they learn is the glamor that lets them appear as an aged crone, which they “wear” whenever there are people nearby.

The current Bellatrix is only about 25 years old, and has been in her position only a couple of years. She was a servant that was abused, and escaped from the caravan she was in when the caravan stayed at Windermere Crossing. Running miles past the town, she wandered into the Whitecona Grove and was taken in by the previous Bellatrix Grimsbane. Three years later, the former Bellatrix wandered off to gather herbs and was not seen again, and the girl assumed the role.

Her house is dug into the hillside, and at first glance does appear to be made of gingerbread. Closer inspection shows it to be an odd sort of shale. And yes, she has a giant cauldron in her kitchen but a child has never been it other than to get a bath.

A friendly face to the kind, she is fierce to those who hurt others. She has been known to visit town as Bellatrix and most people cross the street to avoid the evil looking woman. Oddly she visits with Zesp Zrag who seems unafraid. But there is coin to be made by selling her the tools she needs, and in buying her potions. Her healing potion is not only effective, but carries a faint taste of lilac and tastes better than any others.

The stories of her evil eye are a bit exaggerated. The previous Bellatrix, years ago before Sheriff Sprigbasher came to town, cursed several ruffians that were beating up some street urchins. The ruffians could not keep their pants on no matter what they did, and the constant laughter at the two caused them to leave town. No one knows if they can keep their pants on yet. She also always appears angry and most people try to avoid eye contact out of habit at this point.

Spelunking My Library

Making a post over on COTI, I had to dig through the online copies of my Traveller collection to find Lee's Guide as I wanted to make sure it was what I remembered: a series of adventure vignettes basically that had a range of places you could put the adventure. Then realized I have most of the Far Future CDs and have a GIANT library that I rarely go through. Yet I get more stuff thinking it will be the next great thing to run or play.

And by online, really OneDrive so it is both local and saved off on-line. Makes updating computers pretty easy. And that electronic option also makes searching a lot easier sometimes as, though not a great search engine, the on-line search in OneDrive sometimes finds what I want. It is a lot easier than digging out that plastic box 4 feet in front of my but behind the printer cart. Though I really, really do love to dig through the old physical media - something so much more satisfying. And some of that is not on-line that I've found: my terrorist came from an odd magazine I picked up in college and still have.

And yet I buy more stuff, read it once, and then stick it on the shelf if it is a physical book and never get back to it. I've seen more than 1 blog going over their existing books, basically re-reading things after years of not even looking at them. And here I am thinking to do the same thing. And dig into that box on the floor to remind myself of the journey I've taken, which all started with the original Traveller Deluxe Box Set.

after 40 years, the box is a bit bedraggled.

Way back in high school, I loved board games, especially tactical games. I was just very, very bad at them. I played my neighbor who was several years younger, and he always beat me. I decided that role playing games may be a better fit. This was the early 80s, and despite actually being invited to play by some fellow schoolmates for D&D, I was not a social person in high school. Or particularly social now but I just hide it better! Not sure how I found it, but I think I actually ordered the box from GDW itself. I picked that one from the few I was looking at - think Runequest was there, bit for some reason I had no interest in the actual D&D game system for some reason. Probably because I was much more into SF than fantasy, and the chance to create my own SF universe seemed a dream. 

It showed up and I spent a lot of time reading through it and pouring over the 2 maps it had. The Imperium was huge, and, coming from a failed wargame background, I loved the hex map of the Spinward Marches. Sadly, not being social, and never actually having played an RPG, I did not understand it as well as I wanted. I do know that Book 0 was a great introduction to RPGs in general and Traveller in specific. And I lived in that Scout ship from the introductory adventure in my dreams.  But I still thought in wargame modes so did not really understand RPGs. 

I devoured all 5 books in that box: read and re-read Book 0, tried to understand character generation, and did spend a lot of time building ships with Book 2, and creating worlds with Book 3. And read the intro adventure and tried to play by myself. And for those of you who have read my solo gaming attempts, well, they have gotten a bit better but really for me, a RPG needs others' imaginations to let us fly even further in our own imagination. Red Bull may give you wings or whatever, but fellow RPG players give you the universe. Though I do a lot of world building, they are empty edifices until characters can live in them. 

It was not until college when someone told me there was a guy down the hall with the same box. Yes - I had brought the box with me to college. In fact - that box, which slowly kept accumulating more books, followed me wherever I went. I finally go into an actual RPG group and played. Not just Traveller, but D&D and other RPGs that were around in the early 80s. I kept getting more game material (which I'll try and cover) but the best part was I had 2 other friends who were deep in the Traveller game. We'd play Friday nights until early Saturday morning. I'll admit things were not exactly clear about 3am, but it helped that a nearby bakery opened their back door when making donuts. We could get a bag for $2 I think. Fresh out of the oil, no chewing required as the sugary goodness simply melted in your mouth. And the bag did not fair well...

I am really nostalgic and hold on to things that meant a lot. 1984 membership card from the Old Dominion University Role Gamers Club! As battered as the deluxe box. And yes, I still have it.

Traveller is my first love in RPGs, and though I stopped gaming when I discovered girls (as mentioned, I was not social and that included the whole dating thing), years later I found the Traveller reprint books and COTI. And the local Asheville Gaming Club. But that is a story for another time.

Note - one of the things that got me started looking at what I had was from this blog post from Alegis Downport.

Starports - Port of Entry Review

If you've been reading my blog, you know I like starports. I've several posts where I try to expand on the starports with some sort of Universal Starport Profile. When Independence Games had a sale on their Port of Entry book, I decided it was up my alley. Bought the PDF & color paperback version and it showed up a couple of days ago. And then I remembered I had also bought the GURPS Traveller Starport book years ago. Now I've 2 Starport books! 

This is a Cepheus Engine book for the Clement Sector setting. But like most Traveller books, can be used in pretty much any Traveller or any other SF type of game. The first section covers the basics: ratings and what they mean. The classic ratings are there, but rather than a very complicated USP like I was coming up with, they just add a 3-star system, where 3 stars is your chef's kiss, and 1 star is it barely makes that rating. And from a player's perspective that is probably enough to help get the general feel of things. From a referee point of view, I may still go back & try to get a workable USP that has real game effects, and perhaps a set of tables. But I digress from my brief overview. There are some interesting aspects to the Clement Sector that I may end up using at least in part in MTU. While I use the SPA (which the GURPS book covers pretty well) there is a Captains' Guild that has some similar functions, though I am particularly enjoying the anonymous Starport inspectors. Something I think I will use, though under the auspices of the SPA. 

The next section has a listing of the various facilities and services that may be available, along with several examples. While I've yet to have my players visit an astroburgers, there are several Clement Sector examples given that may show up on multiple worlds. I wonder how interstellar franchises manage to keep track of things like that. The section of services is very complete with a variety of services that are inherent in the port such as traffic control and security, through cargo handling, a wide variety of hotel and restaurant types and so on. Unlike the GURPS book, pricing is not really discussed other than noting expensive options versus lower-cost alternatives. 

Astroburgers (and not sure where I found this image)

We then have a section on careers, with the Guild taking the place of the SPA and oddly the Travellers Aid Society for the most part. As a nice touch, there are even emergency services careers here as well as search and rescue. There are the complete career options with their mishaps and events. Meaning I need to update my bibliography for Traveller careers again! Most of the base careers have choices as to further delineate that job, such as a courier can be a messenger delivering sensitive information, general mail who carries the mail from system to system, or a money courier transferring physical money between worlds. What could go wrong there? I think there is a Classic adventure where a Naval pay ship has crashed. With all those credits just sitting on some planet...

There is a brief interlude after the extensive careers covering an example down port. I did not see a class rating in the several pages covering the port. Based on the description, either a C or B port. But oddly they did not rate it nor give the star rating. Unless I missed it, which is always possible. However - if I were to detail a port, one of the top things would be to list the class rating as that sets base expectations. Regardless of that oversite (mine or theirs) we cover the facilities, get some local color in (reminding me of the GURPS sidebars, though Independence Games uses italics to indicate someone's opinion). A couple of restaurants, a hotel or two, and facilities are outlined. It would be an info dump for the players, and not having section headers or anything to differentiate the text can make it hard to find what the players may ask about. But it does give me ideas about describing star ports and to try & make each a bit unique. 

Next up is a few pages of corporations and organizations. Like the BITS 101 Corporations (and I have a hardcopy from them: when I rediscovered Traveller I got a bunch of things like that, which is also why I have several of the GURPS books even though I am not a fan of the GURPS system itself), some may be useful outside the Clement Sector, but are definitely set up for that setting as most are Earth-based. And oddly I've never played or ran a game in the Solomoni Rim. Chrome is always good, and seeing how other people play is always useful. Some of those may well end up in my universe.

Next we have a lot of example locations, often with floor plans of varying usefulness. I'll admit I like looking at plans but often, they are hard to use effectively at the table or screen. But I think that is a failing on my part. Regardless, I spend a lot of time looking at spaceship plans and fantasy buildings and SF buildings and locations. So even if I sometimes have a hard time using them, I still really like them. As I also have the PDF, I should be able to use these on Owlbear.rodeo (which is what we use when we need battle space to keep track of where characters are; I need to see what we get if we pay for it as we're using the free tier at the moment). I also have pretty much all of 0-Hr's posters and PDFs and minis. Which sadly do not get used much either. Regardless of my meandering, there are a lot of floor plans. All of which are rectangular and square - one would think in a few hundred years there would be more variety in buildings. However, we've had boxes forever basically, so probably not going to change anytime soon (though the 3D houses being printed now do have some interesting shapes sometimes).

A section on grav lifts (forklifts that can fly) follows. Though in a lot of places, unless the vehicle rules are a lot different, you can probably get 20 regular forklifts for the price of 1 grav forklift. However - this IS a SF game so I want my flying cars and forklifts! But it is nice to have some mundane, working vehicles listed.

The final section is a large chapter for creating high ports. With costs. It would be a fun exercise to compare the GURPS rules against the Independence Games version. But in a quick review of both, they seem to pretty much cover the same material: hull sizes, shipyards and the like. And like a lot of Traveller, more for the referee than anything a player will do. Other than interacting with whatever the referee comes up with. I do like the section on station crew and residence which gives some good information. And finally, there is an example of a high port, Wallace's Pit Stop, that shows a 25K dTon station with the basic stats and some high-level plan views. It lists it as a class D port but does not give any stars. Thinking that the station designer did not read that part of the text. Using that and the fantastic plans from Yet Another Traveller Blog's Geomorphs you can create a cool station.

Overall, it was a pretty much must-buy for me as I do love this sort of thing. The artwork is pretty much the Independence Games style of what I think are Poser characters and computer art. While I prefer old-school line drawings, the world is no longer in the 70s. Some of the pieces are really good others, at least those with the poser figures, hit that uncanny valley feel. The book would be useful for referees to create and better define their star ports and what should be available there. 

Anyway, more an overview than a review. I know it is something I'll read through more carefully at some point, and I may even try to build a high port using both GURPS and this book to see how they compare. 

And then I asked the AI to draw a Traveller RPG 50-ton cutter landing at a busy star port. The images may be useful for flavor. 

It was better than the Space:1999 Eagle landing at Moonbase Alpha! Though one could be used in an SF game at least.

Setting up a home in a fantasy game and the session that was just talk

Something I've never really considered but is in several rules is the characters getting powerful enough to have their own domain or home. Rather than hopping from town to town, murder-hobo style, the characters settle down and build a domain or home. This can range from a farm outside of town to an actual stronghold with hundreds or thousands of peasants in your domain.

Mechanically, depending on the world, there are a LOT of options. OSE has some brief notes on that (such as the cleric establishing a stronghold at level 9 with the chance for a 50% off sale due to divine interference). ACKS is specifically set up for that sort of progression, though I only get part of it via the By This Axe book I backed on KS. As that is the only set of rules I have that covers details (well, there may be more rules buried someplace that I've forgotten!), I'll just adapt from those rules, extrapolating as best I can. Of course, it is my game so whatever I come up with is okay.

Interestingly enough, the player who brought it up is playing a druid, and druids don't have that sort of thing at least in OSE. In looking up the grove for a druid, there is no mention of it so anything we do is all us. I did notice that there can only be 9 level 12 Druids, 3 level 13 and only 1 level 14 druid. If he gets to those levels, there will need to be some interesting discussions. The books do note it does not have to be lethal combat.

Our characters are currently level 2, though moving up bit by bit. The druid does not want to live in town - walls and ceilings bother him. The Mycelium warrior probably feels the same way, and really would just as soon have a nice plot of earth to rest in each night. The half-Orc barbarian is likewise probably more comfortable away from the stares of people wary of both is heritage and size. The Halfling kinder thief, with the attention span of a goldfish, is happy as long as there are shiny and interesting things around.

Outside of our little trade town, there is a lot of un-used land. A few days away, south along the path that was once a road across those still-to-be-named southern mountains, lies the salt mines of Crevice Creek, about halfway up the mountain. The Dwinningdales are a small set of villages four days south of Windemere Crossing. They are built in the shadow of an ancient castle known only as Harpystone Rill, so further away than Crevice Creek, perhaps a bit more eastward. I'll have to make at least a generic map of some sort to keep these things straight in my head at least.

But within a day's journey, we can say there are 2 old farmsteads that are no longer in use, with basic buildings that will need work but functioning wells or spring houses. They have cornerstones marking the edges of the properties. Abandoned for years, they do need work to get to livable conditions. If they are not planning on using them as farms and the lands are overgrown with nature reclaiming the lands, one could start up something of a grove there, depending on your definition of what a druid's grove is and what it needs to do. As the OSE version of a druid is one who protects nature from the encroachment of civilization, reclaiming a farm and letting nature back in may be right up his alley.

Anyway, based on the BTA book, a domain starts as small as 2 square miles. Which apparently works out to a 1.5-mile hex on a local map. Which oddly reminds me of the T5 mapping conventions from the world down to the land hex. We'll go with the 2 farms being roughly that sized, maybe 1 is 50% larger, so 1 or maybe almost 2 hexes. The Dwarven definition of civilized, borderland and wilderness  does not really apply - those are specific to Dwarves. For our purposes, this is mostly borderland/wilderness. The biggest nearby town of Windemere Crossing has less than 400 full-time citizens, though often dozens of caravanners go through town which may add a hundred or more visitors. 

No cost up front, but there will be some taxes to be paid eventually, and possibly some local surveying to check for any monsters. The characters can do this themselves, especially the druid who does not get lost easily. As both farms were deserted, we have to wonder why. We've already fought some undead so do not want to revisit that for a bit. But a survey will allow us to run a semi-random hex crawl around the farms. Well, at least 1 or 2 wandering monsters, something they can hopefully handle. It would be nice to get at least a couple of them leveled up in the next session.

Ann's farm has been going back to nature almost 50 years now. She had been born and raised on the farm, the only surviving child though her parents had tried for years to have children. Mostly corn and feedstock, the farm was barely a subsidence-level farm selling grains to the caravans. Back then, there were not nearly so many as there are today. One year, a recurring caravan master noticed that Ann and her parents were not at that old outpost. Taking some guards, he went to their farm to find it deserted, the buildings intact. The small Grainery was half-full, but there were no living creatures of any sort to be found. The barn was empty of livestock and work animals, the house was neatly made up, but no one was there. Having a bad feeling, the caravan master and his guards left, and continued on westward. The farm has been empty since then. There is a large farmhouse, 2 barns and a well-house up the hill behind the house. The roofs are all in dire need of work, but the walls are strong, and the well-house has pristine water: there is a druid's mark on a stone blessing the spring. This is the smaller of the two farms, about 2 square miles, and perhaps a long day walking south-west of Windemere Crossing. The woods have been reclaiming most of the fields.

Old Man Gellar's farm was abandoned almost 30 years ago: an Orc raid killed the farmer and his family, along with the hired hands in the bunkhouse. The buildings all have damage to them and would require more work than the other farm. But there is almost twice as much land here. There are three wells, two of which are still working but the apparatus for hauling water up will need to be replaced. There are brown splotches on the walls, the remains of the bloody slaughter that happened here. Old Man Gellar grew grains as well as figs and grapes. The farm had been in his family for generations, and they had a small wine press and made their own wines. The grape vines are doing well, as are the fig trees. Though as per Ann's farm, the woods are taking back what was once theirs. This farm is almost 2 days walking south-east of Windemere Crossing, and a couple days north of the Dwinningdales.

Do either of the farms have hidden treasures? Where did the people of Ann's farm go? Are there bad vibes to either place: one has an obvious bad history of being attacked by Orcs, the other is a mystery. While I could spin up a lot of things, I am hoping some player discussion may help determine these things, and we can let the story, if they decide to buy a farm, unfold and let the players fill in the pieces. 

Though I really should have a backup in case nothing comes up. And the best part is, this is the night before Halloween so I should make it a scary thing. Perhaps Ann's ghost is still there and has a story to tell. And the players can put her to rest. The farm will have a shrine to Tinma, the God of Plants. Interestingly, Sharn is a follower of Tinma, so perhaps they will meet with an avatar as per that post. In fact, I may have them meet her there if they go to that farm. In fact, Sharn stays here a fair bit, and has been maintaining that shrine. Tinma is not averse to other gods, but should the characters use this farm, Sharn will have one less place she may go to where she feels safe. She does not stay in Windemere Crossing too much as there is some sentiment against Orcs.

holy symbol for Tinma

For the other farm, Old Man Gellar, there will be the ruins of the buildings. Both farms have open vistas to the north, though only Ann's can see the Kalor Desert as the other is further in the woods and though a slightly higher elevation, there are more trees to block that view. 

As half our group was unable to play, we ended up just talking the entire time. But I was ready to run the game!

I even had some ghostly things I was going to run, as well as see about helping our druid set up a grove. I am hoping they are not already bored with my game - I do worry that I just do not run exciting games. I have a lot of the concepts down but the actual play never matches what was in my head in terms of presenting the material. Somehow, I need to be better in good, environmental types of descriptions to help the players get into the actual scene. It all goes so well in my head when preparing! Then it all laves my head. Though I have been printing out ahead of time what I need and that helps. If I keep it organized. And that is what that notebook in the picture above is for!

Also working on at least a distance map for the locations. Probably could do this in one of the hex mapping programs I have. OSE (and a lot of games) have a 24-mile large scale map with 6-mile hexes for local stuff. Though I think I like the progression of T5 mapping a bit better but that is in kilometers so not quite mapping to miles readily.

distances and relative positions. almost a point crawl!