Traveller: Character Challenge 20 & 21: Rest of the Swift Search Team

Sunday, January 19, 2025

Character Challenge 20 & 21: Rest of the Swift Search Team

Knowing that Monday is going to be too busy to get a character in and wanting to get 2 more of the character classes in and also needing a name for the private archaeology team, going to get them done today.

Continuing with a brief overview of the mechanics, Luck is a 1d4+2, then +- /- your charisma score and any received from your class. I forgot the charisma in the previous characters. Luck allows you to re-roll but of course, you need to accept the new roll. I'll update my character sheets but probably not the blog.

And Evade is the equivalent of amor class - what people have to roll to hit you. Which makes for a better name than armor class. Armor class should be how much armor you have, though in the abstract it is taking some of the damage so you could interpret that as being harder to hit.

Needing only 2 more classes, I have 3 to pick from: Occultist, Street Rat and Treasure Hunter. I've already rolled and got 1 male and 1 female. So, let's roll up stats and then see what fits which class and go from there!

1, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5 (for -2, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2 stats) and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5 (for -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 2). Very similar and so I'll just roll 1d3 to see which I don't use instead. And we drop the treasure hunter, which does have the nice class skill of doing the impossible once per session. We'll just have to see how we acquire an occultist and the street rat. But as Indiana Jones had a street rat, and this game is trying for that sort of pulp vibe, it can work here as well.

And speaking of - there is no setting in the 46-page book. It does give an interesting variety of bad guys: Author the Axe who gets advantage when attacking with his axe, Gunslinger Bob the maybe he is maybe he not a zombie, mutant military. And a power armor princess...perhaps like the first Tim Burton Batman movie: while there were modern aspects it was a lot of art deco and 20's/30's vibe to fit with Batman's origin in 1939.

Nicki Sweet

While in Mongolia, Steven and Stephanie realized that her pack had been picked, and she no longer had her passport and about 700,000 tugriks (tugrik is the Mongolian currency as of 1939, and in today's exchange rate about $200). Steven, chagrined at not seeing this happen, scoured the little city they were in for hours but never found the culprit. Later, at the hostel, this chubby street urchin came up and handed them her passport and 300,000 tugriks. "Finder's fee" she said. "I can guide you and keep this from happening again if you want to pay me." Knowing it was probably her who stole the passport and money in the first place, Stephanie somehow felt that she was at least enterprising. The next several months they got to know Nicki better and while Steven still never trusts her, Stephanie seems to enjoy the young girl's company. And as sometimes they are retrieving artifacts from unscrupulous treasure hunters, she has been more than useful at times.

After a few years, they still do not know how old she is. She is no longer the chubby little girl either. But she seems to be able to get anything they need in various cities (just don't ask how) and she is quite the escape artist. But they feel their luck has improved since she has joined the team. She is tiny and while not strong, can run faster than most people. Perhaps a survival trait.

Pinterest - no credit

Reginald Eugene Piscine

Nikki was actually caught once while in Oujda, Morrocco. She made friends with a fellow inmate, and somehow, when they were supposed to be an offering for some Cthulian type of monster, Reginald managed to create a wall of fire around them and they managed an escape. He proved an able young man as the team was battling eerie creatures that he seemed well-suited for in fighting. And it seemed that more of their adventures seemed to involve the supernatural, Reginald was a natural fit for the team. Tall, always wearing a tie, and never far from his book, Reginald speaks in a precise manner. Words are important, and he is very careful in what he says and rarely reveals much about his background.

https://www.priscilla-kim.com/

Swift Search

While Stephanie still hates the name, Steven and Nikki like it, and Reginald has never expressed an opinion. While Stephanie started with her inheritance to fund trips, she also realized that this source of funds would not last. Realizing that many historical treasures were not really lost but often in private, unscrupulous hands, she also does what she calls "retrieval projects" to recover these artifacts to be returned to their proper owners. It is amazing how often modern collectors will recreate, with modern enhancements, vaults similar to the ones where the artifacts were originally buried in. But they only do these to pay for the next dig, which sometimes will pay for itself as museums often pay handsomely for these treasures.