Fantasy Trip Game Recap: Session 9

I've sort of lost track of which recap this is but based on the previous titles, this is the 9th session.

We last left our adventurers below the tower, the gelatinous cube blown up by the remainder of the blunderbuss' charges. One of the players was missing, and so his character went back to keep track of the tower in case anything decided to follow the now rather large group.

Deimos' light is still shining, and Hexis leads the group. To find the ghostly remains of Stubboon himself. I should have had Aigulf more excited as he was tracking down Stubbon's journey, but I am easily overwhelmed by too many NPCs. And this group currently has the 2 new halfings, Marianne the Lapinfolk, Dovak the druid and Sister Ishbarra. 

I had written down what I wanted to do with this encounter:

End of 3 rooms below the tower:

A ghostly figure appears before the adventurers. Behind him are small, rotting chests, bags and the remains of some camping gear. There are some bones from humans, goblins and what may be orcs scattered about.

"Who comes down to my last standing, my final presence in this world? Can it be someone who can free me of these lasting chains that bound me?"

If a cleric type of person says some prayers, maybe? Or in the book Deimos has?

Sister Ishbarra may make prayers and Logton's avatar may show up, heal everyone including Stubboon and help ease some of the corruption

Sadly, her roll was not that good, so the remaining 3 paragraphs I had written never happened. But he kept claiming about being chained by the demon, and only a magical sword could free him of his eternal haunting of this small room below the tower of his last stand. 

Hexis cuts the chains, and he dissipates into wherever ghosts dissapate to. He was standing guard over a chest, piled around with the bones of his few remaining followers. Dovak, Dawn and Sister Ishbarra did what they could to organize them for a more proper burial process. In the chest were the Orc Fist gloves, which effectively give the wearer +2 STR for the purpose of weapon handling (and breaking down doors and all that, but no effect on actual STR and hit points) as well as stone skin. We also randomly rolled up additional armor and weapons from the OSR Booster book I had just picked up. I am putting the details here for the players:

At this point, Axz comes running back: there are gnolls heading to the group! Violet had noticed there was a door, though no one heard her the 1st time. She manages to pick the lock, and they all troop into the corridor, then lock the door behind them. Of course, with this size of a group, the 1st trap got triggered right away, but both Violet and Hexis managed to leap to the other side of the 10' pit that opened up under them. 

Getting the rest of the group across was a little challenging, and somehow, Marriane fumbler her roll and slammed into the wall - they were holding a rope so Hexis could help people jump. To jump a 10' section in TFT you add your DX & ST and roll 5 dice if I recall. 

And the map I had made had a bunch more hand-written notes on it.

They manage to not look down the grates, did not reset the pit trap via the mushroom switch on the wall (there was scraped mushroom on the wall on either side of the eldritch purple mushroom), and did manage to kill an odd, oozing creature (the booger monster) and get a bit more treasure behind that creature.

They also noticed the table had a spiderweb doily under the candle, and the candle itself was trimmed with no melted wax. This was a very clean dungeon! Then they find Arachne, the spider-person who cleans the dungeon. I never could figure out how to do her voice, or even what she sounded like. But, like stubboon, she was trapped here by the demon and would be grateful if they could kill that demon. Which they have fought before. But now they have magical weapons and armor that can help defeat her!

Arachne also noted that some of the corruption seemed to be gone: freeing Stubboon is helping things a long a bit. I do need to re-read the book this corruption is based on, as there are some ideas as to what happens as the corruption gets lifted.

Next session will be the boss battle there, and I've a few ideas for what happens next based on some minis I found. That I need to paint before then, but it can make for a nice interlude and depending on how long they stay, maybe level up things as TFT does.

And for Deimos: yes - you can learn the spell from Dovak as you have the XP you need I think, and as you said you were talking and learning, that works for me. 

Classic Traveller Book 9: Pirates

 Mongoose did release Book 9, the 1st Classic Traveller book published in decades. It harkens back to the old-style and, while I've yet to receive a physical copy, the PDF is very similar to the original LBBs in terms of size and style. They even used black & white line drawings.

Of the 4 authors I only "know" Rob Eaglestone, and I respect the knowledge and work he has put into Traveller over the years. The others I probably should know but alas, I really don't keep up with a lot!

The Quick Overview

The table of contents reflects the classic progression, an introduction giving the overview of things. This takes a couple of pages. The chapter on pirate characters is 4 pages, and of course includes background, generation, pre-enlistment options and so forth. Skills introduces some new skills and lists the various cascading skills. This covers the actual details of pirate character generation, along with the skill tables and mustering out. As well as a generation checklist. We have 4 pages devoted to pirate organizations as well as the Vargr (forever linked to piracy and corsairs). A largish chapter on the practices of piracy covers 8 pages. Two corsairs are detailed, a human and a Vargr ship. 4 pages cover various equipment updates for people and ships, and then we round out the 48-page book (including covers) with deatils on the Khukish subsector in Corridor. Where I've never played or run a game.

Longer overview

Foreword

Marc Miller wrote the forward, which is nice. To quote: 

We present here more than rules about piracy: they are tools for creating new roles in the role-playing environment. New career paths. New skills. The pirate in Traveller isn’t just a raider: they must marshal many different skills in order to succeed.

Introduction

This introduces that piracy has been around forever. While COTI will argue forever about the economics of piracy, I like my Traveller to be a bit pulpy and I see no reason not to have pirates. Space is really big, and our imaginations should be as big as we want. Piracy then can exist in the Traveller universe, even the 3rd Imperium as not everyone of course plays there.

This section could be straight out of the original books: required materials being Classic Traveller books 1-3, pencils, paper and of course 6-sided dice. Die rolling conventions are covered again. At least not as complicated as T5 which really has a LOT of die rolling conventions, Classic just has 1: roll 2 dice and apply any modifiers as needed. 

Pirate Characters

This overview of "what is a pirate" explains that there is no single pirate force but rather collections of pirates, noting that space is unforgiving and the "there are bold pirates and there are old pirates, but not too many old, bold pirates" spiel. It covers the general overview of creating a pirate character. There are no pre-enlistment options, noting that most pirates do not come from affluent backgrounds. But it does note if you have an y of the extended character generation books, those are options you can use. Your pirate may have gone to a university. 

Piracy starts at 18 otherwise. 7+ to get in, with +1 if Social is 7- and +2 if Endurance is 9+. It does note that there is no formal entrance to get in: getting abducted is one way. The example is given of using the Other character generation as your entrance to becoming a pirate, or just plain GM fiat. There is an interesting note that "unlike other professions, pirate draftees are able to be promoted in their first term of service". Ahh, yes, the other advanced character generation the 1st term is basic training. So not so odd other than there is no basic training for pirates: into the deep end first!

As per the other advanced books, pirates also serve 4-year terms of service. This section covers the same basic info. Though there is basic training after all, but apparently still a chance to get promoted. The process is the same as the other books: roll for assignment, resolve the assignment, check for survival, and if you are still alive check for promotion. They can go from E1 to E4 once per term, and E4 rolls into O1. At that point you can only get promoted once per term. The "ranking" system is thus a bit different but that is really to be expected: just as the Scouts have no formal ranking system, pirates have their own informal ranking.

Details of special duty are outlined, and interestingly there is a jailed option that may take 1-2 years instead of the 1 year of special duty. This reduces their social rank, and of course there is the chance of getting killed in jail. I do like the loot special duty - you take a year off relaxing with all your ill-gained loot!

Skills

This covers a lot of existing skills, but if you only had books 1-3, you would not have all the skills the pirate career gives you. They cover all those skills, and I did not notice any new skills being added. But it is nice for those who do not have all the classic books (I do have most of them in print and all of them via PDF. Somehow, I managed to hold on to all my Traveller stuff for 40+ years!) Cascade skills (gun combat and the like) are explained.

Pirate Generation Tables

Then we have the character generation tables. While this is very similar to the older books, the spacing in the PDF just seems off to me. It seems that they tried to emulate the look of the classic books, but the formatting is just off to me. Maybe it will look better in print. 

There are no rank-based skills, and the ranks are fun:

TABLE OF RANKS

Rank

E1 Apprentice Henchman

E2 Henchman

E3 Corporal

E4 Sergeant

O1 Second Lieutenant

O2 First Lieutenant

O3 Captain

O4 Leader

O5 Group Leader

O6+ Varies

The tables are laid out the same as Books 4+, so nothing new there. Which is what we want in a Classic book! The only formatting difference is cascade skills are listed in bold to help indicate you need to expand it a bit. Which is nice.

Pirate Organizations

This section covers forming a pirate company (step 1: obtain a ship). Though, like one of the old JTAS books, you really could be a pirate in a non-traditional sense of the word: hijack cargos at the port itself. And as per many conversations, to be an effective pirate you need to know if the ship has something worthwhile aboard, as well as its schedule. Perhaps this book covers that, we shall see. Like the Vargr, maintaining leadership is a bit different when you are a pirate, and the details in maintaining discipline and leadership challenges are covered.

A section on privateering is covered, which amounts to government sponsored piracy. Think one of my college games I gave the players a Letter of Marque. But that was a long, long time ago!

The book covers trade wars in the Imperium (fitting in our current political climate!) Of course, Imperial megacorporations version of a trade war is significantly different than ours: "The practice brings companies into direct violent conflict, industrial espionage and practical piracy". Well, at least for the moment at any rate (and I'll stop there...like COTI, real-world politics have no place in my games or blog).

The Practice of Piracy

Covers how pirates operate, a very brief history, safe havens and the like. The economics of piracy are covered and lets us know that it is not always as lucrative as fictional stories portray. Of course, this is a fictional universe...This section covers the various forms of loot and what you can get. At least we now have a rule for stripping a ship: 

Pirates can pull everything of possible value from the ship (drive components, electronics, cabling), leaving a useless hulk. Every 100 tons of ship stripped in this way takes 1D hours to produce 10 tons of cargo with a value of Cr50,000 per ton. Small craft are looted separately and not included in this total. This is most efficiently accomplished at a friendly port but can also be done in space, if time allows.

Other activities are covered: raids, smuggling, extortion and the like. Opposition is also covered and expands bit on systems to determine an Imperial or local force. I have used the Space Patrol book to do the same sort of thing.

Mercenary Tickets

Apparently, worlds will hire pirates as mercenaries. Some example tickets are given.

Corsairs

Two ships are detailed. Sadly, one is just the 400-ton trader we've seen before. While it makes sense, it would have been nicer to have something new. On the bright side, the picture looks like it came from the 70s!

The Vargr Glory Corsair is covered as well and has the classic Vargr wings.

Ironmongery

New equipment is covered here: cargo movers, chaff cannisters, and a few other things that have been done in other books in other versions of Traveller. Nice to have them here. There are some personal equipment items added, such as a breaching charge and both a grappler round and a rescue round. Even a "prize crew robot" is defined. New software is added. Though to be honest, even when I was playing in the 80s I had most of this stuff already vaguely defined as I was a computer science major! Comm encrypt, chindi to mislead sensors and a few other things that would come in handy in the life of a pirate. 

Khukish Subsector

This sparsely populated subsector straddles Corridor and has Imperial, Vargr, Client state and non-affiliated systems. So ripe for a variety of systems where piracy could work.

At first glance, Khukish Subsector is home to four different political groups. Two organised Vargr polities to coreward, the Irrgh Manifest and the Glory of Taarskoerzn, are constantly in conflict over religious and political matters. Both are sources of traditional Vargr corsairs raiding into the subsector, preying on the non-aligned worlds, the Imperial worlds and clients and each other. The raiders of the Glory are somewhat more ruthless and known to have a penchant for terror attacks against the Manifest and their perceived allies. The corsairs of the Manifest follow a more traditional Vargr approach to the non-Vargr in the region but hold particular rancor for the ships and personnel of the Glory.

The Third Imperium holds the rimward half of the subsector. It maintains a client state relationship with several worlds in the non-aligned zone within both the New Vland Cluster and the Ushamla Main.

The non-aligned systems are a sparsely populated and equipped collection of independent worlds. Some lean toward the Imperium, though generally in vain, while others attempt to keep their dependence on outsiders to a minimum.

So rich in possibilities!

Conclusion

So, is it worth the money? As the first Classic book in a long, long time, for me it was. Sadly, while I am not quite a completionist I do love classic Traveller. You may have noted I do like career books. Which in fantasy games translates to all the race and class books I keep getting. And will use some day!

For me, it is worth the money as I really do love Classic Traveller. And I hope they produce more stuff, I've noted before I really don't like where Mongoose is taking Traveller: while I liked 1st edition a lot, their subsequent versions are going too far off the path I consider Traveller. And that is fine: different people like different things, and I have all the old books. They are not taking anything from me and the market is a lot different now. But I hope that they will see value in the Classic line and continue to publish for that as well as their version of Traveller. Well, technically both are their version as they now own Traveller. 

I'll save my final "is it worth it" when the physical book shows up. While the PDF has some formatting issues in my eyes, I am hoping the physical book is the same quality as the original books. Honestly - they should have hired that guy on COTI who is basically recreating the classic books and he (I assume he for some reason) has it down just about perfectly, including the tables. The tables in the PDF are the weakest point: they just don't "look" right. Perfectly functional, but sort of like the uncanny valley in terms of visual impact to me.

And yes, I will see about generating a pirate character or two in another post. This weekend both my gaming plans fell through, so suddenly I had more time than expected. Though I did take my old gaming buddy to lunch - we've known each other 40+ years. Sadly, he is now mostly wheelchair-bound, and my house is inaccessible to him as I'd love to have him over to play as he has always played interesting characters. I've run 2 Traveller games with him: one he played a Scout, the other a barbarian. From planet Bob (it had an entirely different name in Imperial records). 

And also working on painting scenery stuff. Test fit a few things, but these are all now painted. Archon makes some nice stuff.

And watching squirrels eat off their picnic table we just got. Yes, I am easily amused! And so is Fiskerton, one of my cats.

Fantasy Trip Game Prep, Pirates and Zombicide

The Space Gits game was pretty short but pretty direct. I think the players had a good time, but I only wanted to run a few sessions. Though I do want to get back to it as I think it is fun.

I have a week to prep the next face to face session at my house. I've got the OSR Booster and will let them roll on the weapons or armor, their choice, and maybe the halfling hearthsinger may know about those. But first they have to get there, past the splattered gelatinous ooze they blew up last session.

I still plan on having Stubboon's ghost there but also may bring back the demon/succubus from the earlier sessions: I want them to have a slightly better combat for one, but also if they can succeed, they may help the corruption of the magic in that area. They do have a lot of people in that party though not many magic weapons that can defeat her. I need to be cautious if I do that.

I've set up a test dungeon past that last spot: I think I will have something start chasing them as they have not left anyone behind to guard the door. And my players generally only read my blog when I post the recaps so pretty safe to put that out there (and even if they do read it, they are excellent at playing in character even knowing things their characters don't. I am a very fortunate gamer!)

Anyway, brought out the toys and played with some configurations. It is even on a cardboard sheet so I can put it under the gamer table (a folding table that is above the coffee table so I can slide it there to hide it from the players! Of course, the purpose of the folding table was to put it away between sessions. It has not been folded up for quite some time).

I took a picture, then using Google Draw started putting ideas down. I will need to expand on these, but also go through the minis I have for appropriate creatures and things and have them all ready BEFORE they show up instead of trying to search while they are there. I have some boxes I can put the "may get used this session" minis into to have that ready. 

I also bought the Mongoose Classic Traveller Book 9: Pirates book. I'll do a review of that in an upcoming post. While I don't like the direction Mongoose is taking Traveller (and their art is just not good I feel - often so vague it looks like AI art though I know it is not. But art is in the eye of the beholder), the quick preview looked like Classic Traveller, and it uses the same LBB format. 

And no Zombicide this weekend as my fellow player got sick. I may have to bring in the modern or SF version as we've been playing the Green Horde a lot and it is good to switch things up. We've been making our own scenarios up, including multi-level versions using the vaults as the basic idea.

Space Gits: Session 3 Recap

Note: Not entirely sure I have the chronology all correct as I took no notes at all this time. But hopefully the gist of things is correct.

Having rescued Casimer Fontaine on the accommodation deck 3, the group has to decide what to do next. Fingers comes clean: he has a sensor that will lead them to the device in question and was actually hired by his contact the junkman Barloc Ros on Mars to retrieve the device. While I am pretty sure he did mention there is a trade for an alien craft for the power cell, there is that. 

They attempt to contact the Mistrios again. This time an alien voice is speaking in a language no one has heard before. They decide that the ship is probably not safe to return to though there was some talk about a rescue or possibly using the device as a bargaining chip, thinking the aliens where there for that. Spoiler: that was entirely incidental as there are two stories going on here. I'll have the meta-game view at the end.

As Quantum Sentinel still has the ropes, he and Mugwart "fly" down the zero-G shaft while the rest climb down the ladders. Standing outside the engineering space, Mugwart opens the door. And rolls initiative!

The alien attacks but sadly never actually connected except a couple times, but Mugwart's armor and power shield protected him. Viktor and Casimer both shoot & managed to miss at point blank range (not surprising in how I roll) and manage to set the filtering system on fire. The battle goes around with little movement other than another alien climbing down the shaft. It gave all the players chances to shoot. And as per our group, mostly missing. One player is pretty sure he never had a successful roll in the game, and I am fairly certain he did not. But he did help his brother which gives advantage, so he did help!

They eventually kill the two aliens, Quantum floating in the shaft shooting and missing as well. The other alien managed to get to the railing and tried to chew on Mugwart (he kept getting the random who is getting attacked roll). Getting through they managed to get the device, and then have to decide what to do again. The bad news was that the fire triggered an automatic lockdown to prevent it from spreading. The good news was that Fingers & Scabbs had a high-admin override. As Viktor found he could not exit the doors, but they could. 

a little fire

Knowing that below them there are only 1 and 2 man work pods, the head back to the docking deck. Knowing there is a 20 ton launch there. They were going to lock the docking clamps to the Mistrios, but the main terminal had no power. In this universe, docking clamps are mostly automatic but a station or ship that has them can override them to keep them locked. One of the emergent universe rules as I had not thought about it, and when asked, came up with this. 

They shuffle on after checking the shuttle, and launch. They can see the alien ship docked to their ship, and figure they cannot rescue anyone left behind. So, we asked another player to come up with a contact and a place: we now have a doctor who is currently on a mining station on one of the moons that is within reach of the launch.

Goodbye gas mining station

And we left at that point. Normally the game has an XP die set up based on stats: a lucky roller may bet a d12 and an unlucky one may get a d4. At a milestone (as this was) you roll that die for the number of XP points you get. You can then back them or apply them. As I've been told I'm stingy in that department, I just gave out 5 points they can use. If we continue to play, I will use that mechanic as I don't want to be too giving! 

I am hoping that another player picks up the game and runs it, and I can play one of the NPCs that they have with them: Quantum, Viktor, or Casimer. Though Viktor is the only one I did not roll up so has currently stat-free.

Meta-game plot if anyone is interested

Earthfirst was not sure what the device actually was, and they were going by rumor. They wanted it regardless as it was a higher technology than Earth has, and they want to improve not only Earth but also its technology. And kick aliens off of Earth. 

Ros had some schematics in the alien ship that was mysteriously left in his junk yard and knew this was worth a lot. He contacted his friend Fingers, gave him a sensor unit (which can be repurposed) and a trade: get teh power cell back and the ship is Finger's. It may need some work - leaving that open for future adventures: it may not even fly and need parts and stuff. And being an alien ship, good luck! But we have player characters with skill that apply so they may be able to fix things. Of course, it also depends on who runs the next session for that game.

The aliens were actually the children of the alien from the alien ship. They hatched a bit earlier than expected, and the protector dropped them off at the station to feed. His plan is to take them to another colony to continue to feed. They are higher-tech than Earth. and had basically done some EMP to the station systems. Carter Burke and the remaining mercenaries are probably dead, unless they made a deal with the alien, and then may have reason to go after our heroes for abandoning them at the station! Though to be fair, things seemed dire.

I also have a few alien ships we could use, and just today 0-Hr started another Kickstarter with yet another alien ship. I saw it as a sign and backed it. Despite saying I was going to stop...It could be that one or the traditional flying saucer...

Retropack

Space Gits: Session 2 recap

 When we last left our small squad of mercenaries, they had just killed a face hugger. Scabb's favorite spanner has a melted tip, and it was eating through the docking tube's floor. And as the docking tube was open to space on either side, and they were not wearing vacc suits, they quickly left that space and called back to Burke and company that they may want to send over Quantum Sentinel to patch the floor. 

It took Fingers more than 30 minutes to access and hack into the security system to be able to print out all access passes for the group. There was some brief discussion about the images to put on the cards. Fingers updated his a bit.

While this was going on, the 2nd squad came in and, getting their own passes (though not sure we actually said this was happening but retconning if we did not) and went to the top-level command deck. Hopefully to find where that device they were sent here for was at. Meanwhile, Fingers had noticed a human life-sign on the 3rd habitation deck and so they decided to go there. 

At this point, the elevators seemed to be broken - they were not moving and seemed powered down. Knowing that the OSHA-compliant central shaft led all the way there and had ladders, they decided to go that way. However, they quickly ran into an issue: the ladders were those enclosed ones you find on various construction and limited access places. Mugwart the Venusian Toadman could not fit. The rest of the group climbs to the next level, and despite having agility, the convection shaft is humid, and he slips. He also missed his save but still managed to catch himself on the edge: apparently the central shaft past the catwalk is a 0-G area. Not sure how convection would work without gravity exactly, but it was a cinematic choice. They call to Quantum to bring along any climbing gear, and a few minutes later he arrives with equipment including a grav sled. 

Hooking ropes to the burley toad man, he still manages to slip despite having advantage. He swings out over the shaft and then realizes he can just sort of fly up. Which he does. They manage to get to the accommodations deck finally. Mugwart and Quantum take one side and Viktor the other when they see an older alien. Mugwart shoots 3 times in the battle hit just once. Though he does have a skill that gives him an extra d4 of damage. Quantum Sentinal also only managed to hit once. Viktor, with his belcher, did manage to hit the creature as it leapt to him to attack. Somehow, other than some acid splashes on the armor that Geran cleaned off, no one was hurt. 

battle!

They found Casimer who almost killed Mugwart with a mining laser. Then they heard fighting over the comms as the other squad encountered more aliens in the command deck. It did not seem as though the other squad of mercenaries was doing well (I had some horrific rolls behind the scenes). 

They were wavering about whether to go to the engineering deck where the device was at (as they found from Casimer). That's when Helene, the pilot, and Carter Burke said that the alien ship was approaching. For the technically minded - they are in Jupiter's upper atmosphere. There is a lot of radiation and electronic interference, and that ship only has the basic sensors that cannot penetrate too far. Somehow 2 survivors from the command deck had managed to get aboard the Mistios. No one asked though I have updated the discord channel to note that there are various life pods and shuttles all around the station - there are other options than the inside only approach. I did say in the game that there were 4 main docking ports though the map really does not show that (hindsight!).

Then the comms from their ship cut off, and that was where we left the game.

Pretty sure we have 1 more session left, maybe 2 depending on how much we talk vs play, and what they end up doing. At least one of the players has some additional info that may have been shared as I am not privy to all that if they DM each other. Which is a nice advantage to online play though it took me way too long to figure out how to get to the DM when a player sent me a message!

Now the nice part about this game is that if they survive and someone else wants to run it, I can play one of the surviving mercenaries. Maybe even Viktor as he was a big part of the evenings play.

And also got a bit more paint and shading and highlighting on this guy. Almost done. Not sure what I am going to do with him but guess he can go into my demon collection box. If he'll fit!

Game Prep: All The Games

Although the immediate need is a bit more work on the Space Gits game as our next session is Monday and the Fantasy Trip game is 3 weeks away. 

For the Space Gits game, it is still mostly a dungeon crawl in spa-a-a-a-a-ace. I will actually be using the OSE time rules so that every 20 minutes or so of in-game time I'll roll on my random events table. If I roll a 1 on a d6 I then roll on my random encounter table. Or if the group is getting louder or talking. I do want to have a few environmental aspects: sounds, grav plates fluctuations, that sort of things. They also need to find the MacGuffin, err, atmosphere exchanger (though 1 player has more information on that, and I need to write him a bit more. And done!)

I have about 3 decks worked out that I can drop into Owlbear. Currently they are on the docking level and are still in the security office. I also have the bridge deck done up and an engineering/living quarters deck. Depending on where they go, the device will be on the last deck they are looking through. I also think I may have the mercenaries possibly getting killed off off-screen. As the 2nd squad led by Kai is suiting up to help the search.

So, I only really need to review my maps and maybe add some more random events. I may also see about adding a small escape shuttle somewhere on there as I've offered that player a couple of options and want to make sure he can take advantage of them if he wants. And I need to figure out the alien protecter a bit more as he will have to make some sort of entrance. After all, both the ship and station have a number of airlocks, not just that one docked to the station!

As for TFT, they've only briefly explored the 2nd chamber of 3. The 3rd chamber may or may not be the end now that I have more time. While I will let them discover the Orc Fist gauntlets, as well as a few other random weapons from a 'zine, that does not mean the end. And I have a few ghost minis so Stubboon himself may have to make an appearance. But I am also considering there being yet another passage that leads to a vast underground dungeon. Especially considering that they left no one at the tower to guard the door despite having a LOT of NPCs along. Perhaps Doran the Druid will decide that being underground is not where he wants to be. Or Marianne. Though rabbits do live in burrows. Plus, Sister Ishbarra is still way down in strength. I may have to throw in a health potion or so. As Stubboon was a merchant and carrying some magical items. Wonder if there is a best by date for health potions? And what else will be there?

But not this guy I am working on. Finally put together a few sprues from Archon that have been on my desk for years. Probably because I've got more on the way this year. But I have used some of the stuff at least!

And someone on COTI found the artist behind that gas giant station. LucasDigital has a Flickr page here if you want to look at Traveller-style spaceships. While I did not use the interior plans, they are there as well.

The lowest of the larger decks for my game is below - that central shaft is open and has small 1-person maintenance elevators. Unlike the Death Star there are guard rails on the walkways, but the shaft does go down about 50 meters from teh top before narrowing. It is used for <insert technobable here> condensing the gasses to a liquid stream for fuel purification. It does have a breathable atmosphere, but it is recommended to wear protective masks which are available at all entrances.

The two color blocks are the elevators that run alongside that big shaft. Big enough for a crew. Though if power goes out to those, the ladders in that shaft are the only way between decks. OSHA was apparently not in the review stage of design.

I've added lifeboats to the crew desk, which also has the med ward. There are also some larger shuttles but not sure I want to keep them there. Either way, will the lifeboats be there, and if there, even working? I'll have to decide when and if we get to that point!

Space Gits Session 1: Into the station

We started the session with the Mistios (their ship they just joined) parked at Mars. They were with the mercenaries that Carter Burke runs as COO. They also met the rest of the mercenaries as introductions were made and they signed the contracts. Which are for 1 year. They spent the evening carousing and there was a bit of chitchat as we kinda felt out various characters. They did meet specifically Quantum Sentinel which my mind is part of the Sentinel series of combat bots. He has a Cockney accent as the company that makes them is in what was once Britain (and that accent is due to me listening to the Disney soundtrack on the way home, even though Dick Van Dyke has horrible version of such an accent. I am sometimes nostalgic about movies I watched growing up and we had that on vinyl way back when). They also met the head of the mercenaries, Kai, who challenged Mugwart to a practice fight tomorrow on board the ship to see how the new recruits stacked up.

Our players consist of the rat brothers, Skabbs and Fingers. They are Scritch, and brothers who followed the criminal career in the game. Though Fingers got through all 4 terms, Scabbs got caught and was in prison for two years. Where he met up with Geran, a human who was court-martialed from the Navy after 2 terms and sent to prison for, oddly enough, 2 years as well. And finally Mugwart, the Toadian. The player wanted to play a battle toad so we made it up:

The Toadmen of Venus arrived during the early terraforming days, quite surprising the Terran engineers. Being in a deep hibernation, they are the lost colony of a long-forgotten alien race. Their technology is similar to humans, and while they can use human equipment, it is at a disadvantage unless it has been modified for them specifically. In the same way, their own equipment or modified equipment runs at a disadvantage to non-Toadmen.

The remaining Toadmen were a warrior caste, and generally prefer fighting over diplomacy. Seeing as they are close to 7’ tall, they do tend to be intimidating.

As a Toadman, you gain the following benefits:
+1 Strength and Will
Talent: Gunslinger (+1d4 damage with handguns)

Toadman of Venus

the Scritch

Anyway, they get to their ship before launch at 04:00 Mars time. I am using the 0-Hr Atlas as an old colony ship as the bottom half is all cargo bay (and I liked it enough I actually got 2 minis!). They get a tour of the ship and meet the pilot, Helene, They share one of the bunkrooms on the ship with Viktor, a huge Russian. 

The practice fight was over quickly - it was really an attempt to test the melee combat rules for to the 1st hit. Mugwart won in 2 rounds. It was simple enough I think - basically roll a d20 against your target's defense score (aka armor class) and add in your coordination bonus and any brawling skill. Though I may have picked strength bonus... Anyway, Geran is now the ship's medic and patched up Kai from the punch.

Fingers and Scrapp then fix the ship's fabricator. The players helping another player and giving advantage to the test worked well, and Scrapp fixed the broken fabricator. A Traveller 5 Maker, or just a really advanced 3D printer/Assembler thing that can craft items. They used it to craft fittings to make one of the bunks in their barracks to be combined so that Mugwart's feet do not hang over the edge of the bed.

4 days later (it is a quick transit from Mars to Jupiter) they are approaching the mining station floating in Jupiter's upper atmosphere. There are no responses to their hails, so they approach carefully. Helene horribly failed her pilot roll - a 1! So Geran, who has pilot, took the pilot seat and managed to dock successfully with the quiet station. The lights were on but no one appeared to be home.

Their squad, which are the players and Viktor, get armored up, gas masks as they are concerned about pathogens or plague, and enter the docking tubes. Safety systems and a small airlock only allows 2 to go through at a time. Fingers has to unlock the interior door with a hacking talent he has as the station inner airlock was locked. The red warning light was flashing as well. 

There was much discussion and much hesitation, but eventually all 5 of them manage to crowd into the security section. I had the entire map out for them of this level as they do have the plans for the station. Assuming nothing has changed! Viktor checks out the bathroom as he is at the front of the group. There was still no one there, and they break into the security office, and find footage of what happened 2 days prior: some alien ship, which no one in the group recognized, was approaching the station. There were 4 security guards at the ready then the feeds all stop. Looking back at the airlock, they now see that there are las burns on the walls and air lock door.

It was quite alarming, so radioing back to Carter and Kai, they are told the 2nd squad was suiting up. Then they hear some skittering in the air system (yay - I had made random encounters! And there were 12 so I had a player roll a d12). Mugwart lifts Scabbs up to the vents (they are about 6x12") and he can hear something approaching through the air system. With claws. He drops back down as a small, armored little alien bursts through the vent. Mugwart swings with his Jolt fist and smacks it, and Scabbs swingers his spanner on it. The creature is killed - it had missed its attack on Mugwart. But Scabb's spanner and the deck is sizzling: the blood is very acidic!

attack at the security station

And this is where we left the game. One of the players had been up for 30+ hours, so, just like my Saturday game, I had people falling asleep! They assure me that my games are not that boring!

Thinking we probably have 2 more sessions for this space dungeon crawl. And the players do have a scanner that should indicate where their target device is located. 

Game Recap: The Fantasy Trip Session 8

We finally got all together again and once again stepped into my Fantasy Trip game. I did do a bit of a jump cut: covered a few days of travel through the Cutting Fields. Their supplies were getting low despite having two expert woodsmen with them: the corruption of nature and magic means that there just is not a lot to hunt.

Sister Ishbarra is still sorely wounded, and there are a few other wounds here and there but nothing too bad. But we cut to late afternoon a few days after our last meeting, and off in the distance they can see a small, 3 story or so keep or tower. Violet hears the stamping of feet, and off in the distance, they can see a troop of gnolls and a small band of goblins moving to ancient tower.

Seeing some flickering light inside the tower, the party was uncertain if the war party was going back home or going to attack. A small, redhead peeked out and even from the distance they could hear a curse. It looked like the remains of the door were being pushed back into place.

As the gnolls climbed the narrowing approach to the castle, arrows started shooting down from the top of the tower. It appeared to only be a single archer at the top, and the gnoll closest to the door was protected by the overhang. The 2nd was not as lucky, but the arrows seemed to barely penetrate their thick hides.

Deciding that attacking the attackers from the rear and possibly saving whoever was inside was a better choice. the group attacks: Hexis and Exz throw rocks as they get closer (and Axz never once hits anything), Violet is also throwing rocks, and Marianne and Dawn are shooting arrows. The Druid and cleric both move up to attack the goblins. 

Deimos attempted to cast an illusion of a door at the castle but sadly failed that roll. The next roll for the bear was successful, and due to the narrowing of the gorge to the castle, formed an effective barrier to prevent the gnolls from getting to the group (which, had they hit, may have well been insta-skill for some of the players!). The battle only lasts a few rounds: there are a lot of payers and NPCs in this group. I should have added a few more gnolls or something but TFT is a fairly deadly game. And no one has stocked up on healing potions. And they've not had time to rest: it requires 2 days of rest to recover 1 point of damage. At some point the archer from teh roof drops her bow - I rolled a 17! There was more cursing.

They kill all but one of the goblins, and one of the gnolls decided running away was a better life choice. From this goblin they found that they were also after the Orc Fist Gauntlets, so the party now knows they are where they need to be. Game-time it was only a few weeks at most, real life has been challenging!

They also end up killing Eugene the Goblin despite his pleas that he could help. They also find, from Deimos (and the player is really good at reading the rules) mentions that touching the dead goblin's magic staff would not be a good choice: 3d damage. There was a lot of discussion on how to use it has a weapon and not touch it but in the end they just left it alone as too dangerous. I also used the Ultimate Bestiary for the stuff the goblins and gnolls were carrying: while the ratted meat rations from the gnolls was not used, the goblins had 5 days of rations. Which with the group as large as it is is not even a day....

Inside the tower, they find two halfings: Aigulf and Dinah. Aigulf has been tracking down the history of Stubboon, and Dinah is there to protect the mostly helpless hearthsinger. A bit of food, and a bit of rest for Deimos, and then some tower exploration. I do want to say they slept overnight but I do not recall for certain. They do find a small coin and a few other bits, but nothing of importance. Deimos checks for magic and there is a sense of magic below the floor, despite the solid rock floor. I think ii was Axz who found the impression of the coin in the stairwell. Putting the coin in there, it dissolves in a puff of smoke and the staircase opens up to continue below the floor. Deimos, having the light spell, gave the pendant to Hexis, who followed behind Voilet. The rest of the group followed (and I just realized left no one as a guard upstairs...) with Aigulf and his torch bringing up the rear. At the bottom of a narrow staircase is a small area with room for maybe 3 people. And a door locked on this side. They realized it was locked to keep something in. Opening the door, they find a small 10' wide corridor leading on. Following this around a couple corners, they find a more open area. There is a small pool of dark water in one corner, and the group is searching inside this space. Not realizing the drips of water do not create ripples in the pool. By the time they do realize this, a gelatinous cube is emerging from the water. Doyne recognizes this and tells the group important information as they have never met such a thing before. Deciding that it was too large, and that the gunpowder from the blunderbuss may be their best approach, they create a small pile of the gunpowder, and when the cube gets close, throw Aigulf's torch. As gunpower does 3x the damage, there is splattered gelatinous cube all over the place.

And this was where we stopped the game for a few reasons. It gives me a chance to finish dealing with the rest of this dungeon they are now in. They have 3 torches left, as well as Deimos' light pendant. But the group is so large that they will need a torch at least, maybe two. And they last about an hour. 

And the question came up at the end about XP. I decided to wait until they get to a resting spot: XP in the middle of a dungeon delve just does not sit right with me. They will get experience though, maybe enough to help them over a couple hurdles. 

I also am going ot use a few things I have and let them roll up what we discover. Who knows what Stubboon managed to cache down there? He was carrying a supply of magical armaments according to legends. Which Aigulf is researching. I did that so that I could explain what they are getting mostly.

I am also leaning to having something down there that may help or show something about the corruption. And while I have actually finished putting together a few things from Archon that have been sitting on my desk (or under it) for years, I don't plan on dropping that on them!

not going to show up, but at least I got it together! Now to paint it!

And there we have the 8th session.

Game Prep: The Fantasy Trip & stocking the dungeon

While the outside areas have wildlife and thus resources such as potential food and water, what about underground dungeons? Especially those that are sealed off? I'm extending one of the maps with a few map tiles I've got but it is essentially a dead end.  And being sealed, nothing could live down there, right? I do have a note scribbled on the index card where I have the 3 square tiles sort of outlined, and in one I'm adding a small underground stream with some fish. Where the stream comes from and where it goes, who knows. But it is not enough to feed anything for long. 

However - while I was thinking I was just joking about the gelatinous cube simply because I have a big die that IS such a beast, I read the description in the book to see if it indicated what it ate other than the occasional adventurer: 

Deep underground, the party enters a small room, only about a megahex wide by seven megahexes long. The door is completely rotted away – only a few fragments of wood remain stuck to the top hinge. The room is completely bare except for a pool of water a hex in size, at the end away from the doorway. The water is undrinkably acid. Things thrown into the pool vanish into its greenish murk. Before long (sooner, if the party interacted with the pool) the water will begin to overflow, and a greenish pseudopod will emerge and quest about. Then the whole pool hex will be filled with the greenish flesh of a gelatinous cube, slowly emerging. It will take a minute for it to get completely out and move toward the party. 

So I can have that cube in there! Probably no other creatures other than maybe rats?

I've also written down two other characters (Dina Goldenfoot and Aigulf Proudfoot) that I may have in the tower when the group gets there. They were part of the January character challenge and while written for OSE I've basically created TFT character cards for them to have. And having Aigul there, as he is a bit of an historian, when I let the players roll for the weapons, he will have a decent chance of knowing about them so the players may have a better idea of exactly what they are getting.

And since I've also recently decided to get some of the scenery and figures off of sprues from Archon, I actually have a couple camp rolls, tents and stuff. I may add that to the center of the tower. 

camping in a tower with unpainted camping equipment

Part of my questions on dungeon creation are coming from my reading of a few books on game mastering, and the new book that showed up on actually designing dungeons. I need to think of just how things survive in places. And a sealed dungeon does not give a lot of room for the living. It does for the undead though. And at least one of the players does have an enchanted sword that works great against the undead. So maybe I'll add a few skeletons or something. As I have way too many skeletons!

Like Checkov's Gun, everything in a dungeon must be there for a reason. And that equally applies to the various critters that are there. There needs to be a reason the creatures are in there. Though to be fair, I will leave clues for things I am planning for down the road, and so they do not have an immediate use in that particular game and may never actually come to fruition. But I do have the concept of a plan usually!

But I also thinking traps: I've not been good about adding traps to dungeons. I worry that they can be insta-kills or too easy. Not sure how to balance that really, despite reading a lot on it. But I think I can add at least 1 trap in the adventure. Just need to figure out how to role play it well for the players.

Anyways - thinking of a living dungeon that has its own ecology can be a fun challenge. But a dungeon that is only (let's see, each tile is 7x7 5' squares, so 49x3 = 147 square feet, which includes walls) does not leave space for an ecology honestly. But, what if there was another secret door on one of the rooms, and a much larger dungeon behind that? Maybe I could connect it to the Lost Depths of the Ageless or the Glimmering Crypt of the Ioun King! One of these days I will try to run those as well. 

As an aside on living dungeons - that is really what the wandering monster tables are for in various games and adventures. In OSE you roll every 20 minutes to see if something shows up, and that reflects that the dungeon is not a static place with creatures just sitting in a room waiting for someone to show up. I do use the OSE time tracking sheet even for TFT when they are inside as it is really pretty handy. Those torches are not going to last forever!

And while unrelated to TFT, we did have basically a session 0 for Space Gits and everyone has their characters. Character generation went well and even with the random process, they ended up with the characters they envisioned, I think. I'll try & have a post on those characters, but this weekend is running the Fantasy Trip game, then Monday night is session 1 for Space Gits. Not sure I'll handle running two games concurrently well, but the Space Gits game I think will only be 2-3 sessions, and TFT is only monthly. Surely I can handle that! And don't call me Shirley!

Game Prep: The Fantasy Trip

Then I realized I have a face-to-face Fantasy Trip game coming up this next Saturday. I have to catch up as it has been a while since we ran. And funnily enough, it has been 1 year since we started this game. But this will be the 8th session. Getting together consistently is hard, plus this is a once-a-month game.

Recap so far:

S1: Sewers, found crypt, rescued Keg https://traveller-ct.blogspot.com/2024/02/to-sewers-once-more.html
S2: return for the crypt, find Ax (goblin rat catcher), Hexis has sword https://traveller-ct.blogspot.com/2024/03/fantasy-trip-game-recaps-two-for-one.html
S3: shopping, get medicinal weeds for sick child thieves, stay at Olmsted farm https://traveller-ct.blogspot.com/2024/04/saturday-fantasy-trip-recap-to-weeds.html
S4: back to Edge City, twin Elf children of possible royal descent. mission to head north for Orc Fist Gauntlets, fight a sect https://traveller-ct.blogspot.com/2024/07/battle-of-sects-followup.html
S5: escort Clybe to Bresselwyth, fight demon, meet Marian Harefolk, stay in goat town https://traveller-ct.blogspot.com/2024/07/battle-of-sects-part-3.html
S6: heading north, meet harpies, fight wolves, find strange green crystals in the wolves https://traveller-ct.blogspot.com/2024/09/meeting-harpies.html
S7: Battle of the Cutting https://traveller-ct.blogspot.com/2024/12/fantasy-trip-game-recap-7.html

See - I knew there was a reason I do game recaps in electronic and shareable format!

One of the things I am doing is putting the NPCs on note cards - old school style for an old-school game! I did have them printed up on paper but that kept getting lost in the other papers. I *could* use a notebook with tabs but the only one I have at the moment is filled up with characters I've played in games. Though yeah, I could get a notebook! But I have a set of index cards that came with the recipe box I got to put the TFT monster cards in, and they can in 4 colors. So blue are NPCs to help track things.

I am also planning on doing a jump cut to get straight to some action: they are trekking through the Cutting Fields, Sister Ishbarra will get a little better, but she was sorely injured last session. But they will be in sight of what appears to be a small tower. And then hopefully will notice the goblins and gnolls also approaching the tower. 

And when I was looking for kobold and gnolls for TFT, while kobold still are not there, the Old School Monsters book does have gnolls in it!

TFT Old School Monsters

And I am using some maps I got from the Campaign Cartographer series - 24x26" dry erase maps. Plus, I got the map tiles from their last KS and have some ideas for extending the map beyond what is there. And I've been told I am far too stingy with treasures and magic items. So, I'll have them roll on the d20 table from the OSR Booster. I may not explain all the effects though as some of those things are more than a literally 2-edged sword. I still need to stock the new section not on the map - thinking I do have these gelatinous 2" dice...

what's on the other side of that door?

I have the maps set up the way I think will work, almost finished painting 2 additional gnolls I picked up from some KS (and sadly think there are more eventually on the way). I am hoping we'll have a good time. 

it is a narrow staircase to the castle entrance

Entirely unrelated to games

And entirely unrelated to gaming, I managed to add a new process for work that is infinitely expandable as I know that there will be more options down the road. And the actual code to get the correct mapping is only a few lines long. And this was in Ruby, so we also ported it to the .NET C# code base we are replacing the far out-of-date Rails application (safer to start all over than to try to update the old application as there are significant breaking changes to get it up to date. Plus, I really prefer .NET / C#) But the fun part was once I had the Ruby code, working (and yes, it worked in production in the first order that came in. But I did test the heck out of it before deploying), I got AI to translate it to C#. And that worked out of the box with just some minor tweaks. I know people keep saying AI will take over, and while it is a tool, they've been saying this sort of thing since I started almost 40 years ago. And I am still writing code.  And as I retire with any luck in just over 4 years, I'm good. Like a lot of things, it may be close, and in some cases good enough, but for a lot of problems that are not simple, it still takes the creative spark to figure things out. After all - you need to know just what to ask the AI. All it does currently is spit back out the stuff it has been trained on, though it can find interesting combinations from that morass of data. Which someone has actually written, drawn or whatever. Eventually the androids will dream of electric sheep, but we are not there yet. 

Space Gits game prep

 Moving into high gear now. I am still trying to get them to name the ship, but so far they are just making jokes. All fine and good but we may end up with a joke name. Which is perfectly fine by me!

Thunderchicken did come up

And I decided that I did not need to roll up ALL the NPCs. Asked AI for 8 science fiction mercenaries, and this is what it gave me. Now to wrap them up in Space Gits skills. I did the 1st one as a test. And yes, fairly stereotypical, but at least I don't have to try and come up with a minimal background and personality. 

1. Kai "Ironclad" Drayden

   • Background: A former military strategist who now operates as a freelance mercenary, Kai's tactical genius is unmatched. He carries an aura of authority and a sense of justice.

   • Skills: Tactical planning, hand-to-hand combat, advanced weaponry

   • Personality: Calculated, determined, and fiercely loyal to his comrades.

2. Lyra "Shadow" Voss

   • Background: Lyra is an elusive infiltrator with a mysterious past. She specializes in espionage and covert operations, often working alone.

   • Skills: Stealth, hacking, close-quarters combat

   • Personality: Quiet, resourceful, and exceptionally perceptive.

3. Rex "Blaze" Thorne

   • Background: A pyrotechnics expert who thrives in chaos, Rex loves nothing more than creating spectacular explosions. He's known for his recklessness and thrill-seeking behavior.

   • Skills: Explosives, demolition, high-risk maneuvers

   • Personality: Energetic, unpredictable, and fiercely competitive.

4. Zara "Frost" Kallus

   • Background: With a cold and calculating demeanor, Zara is an expert sniper. Her precision and patience make her a deadly adversary from a distance.

   • Skills: Sniping, reconnaissance, survival tactics

   • Personality: Stoic, focused, and highly disciplined.

5. Jax "Echo" Ryder

   • Background: Jax is a communications specialist with an uncanny ability to intercept and decode enemy signals. He's invaluable in electronic warfare.

   • Skills: Signal intelligence, hacking, communication systems

   • Personality: Witty, clever, and always one step ahead.

6. Nova "Rogue" Hayes

   • Background: A former bounty hunter, Nova is a skilled tracker and hunter. Her unorthodox methods often lead to unexpected successes.

   • Skills: Tracking, marksmanship, hand-to-hand combat

   • Personality: Independent, rebellious, and fiercely determined.

7. Viktor "Titan" Kruger

   • Background: A towering figure with unmatched strength, Viktor is a heavy weapons specialist. His imposing presence often ends conflicts before they start.

   • Skills: Heavy weaponry, mechanical engineering, close-combat

   • Personality: Brash, fearless, and fiercely protective of his team.

8. Raven "Specter" Cross

   • Background: Raven is a master of disguise and deception, able to blend into any environment. She's an expert in undercover operations.

   • Skills: Disguise, espionage, martial arts

   • Personality: Charismatic, enigmatic, and highly adaptable.

NPC card - as small as I can I think at 1/4 of a page

playing with WordArt on Publisher :)

Of course, the players are just part of a team here. I am used to running and playing games where we ARE the team, though there are some NPCs who get added to the mix to help. But they are not the top dogs in this group (which is closer to the original version of the game). Though if everyone else dies, guess they will be the top dog. I think this may be a fairly lethal game if I play it right.

I've even started coming up with a list of atmospheric descriptions I plan on dropping in at random time. I want to see if we can make this feel as claustrophobic and stressful as some SF horror movies are. Which I don't really like though I did see Alien way back, and I think at least 1 more. But those types of movies give me nightmares and I have strange enough dreams as it is. Sometimes I feel I am living other lives in my dreams, which may explain why I am always tired when I wake up. Perhaps I am really a butterfly dreaming I am a man!

• flickering lights
• grav field fluctuating (unless they have 0-G at disadvantage?)
• no life support sounds - e.g.,no air flowing
• metallic banging - rhythmic, random, code?
• scream in distance - organic? machine?
• flickering shadows
• sounds of *something* in the life support ducts
• dripping sounds - sizzles?
• pitted deck plates
• stains on the floor - blood? food? mechanical fluids? something else?
• single boot on the floor - empty? a foot remaining? vermin in it?
• odd smells - acrid? smoke (always a bad sign in a ship or station!)

I'll add more but I need to see if I can get the scenes set and the atmosphere for this. I can't do background music or sounds as those just distract me as I am listening to that rather than the players. If we were face to face and it was dark that would help but when we do play face to face it is daylight. Me and my getting up at 4am makes staying up late not great as I start getting sleepy not long after 8!

And Happy Valentine's Day!