On the bright said, the pumpkin bread was again a success. Personally, I felt the game sort of dragged along. Especially as we all kept getting distracted. Okay, so I kept getting distracted.
Regardless, they sent Mathew Robards back to the Alderil Empire, hoping to get some further intel on Naval border patrols. But after a few days with no word (I had them all roll 1 d6, and they only got 1 success, so Mr. Robards has not returned yet). Nefarious reasons or just a delay, they have no idea. Not wanting to delay much longer, they make sure they have some of the clothing from the Trenner Trade Guild, and we all remembered that they also took that captain's strong box, so they have some sort of papers at least. Last time Batrina just passed along a newspaper.
Of the crew. Leo and his friend Jean (who the cat seems to have taken a liking to, but so far that cat has not done anything interesting), along with one of the Trade Guild sailors who now work on the Windrazor has the proper accent to possibly pass as an Alderial Empire native. And at least we used some of the backstories so far - I do read those and try to incorporate parts of that into the story line. But so many backgrounds, and Leo's was a full type-written page!)
Deciding to go ahead and set sail, Leo manages to find the border. His strong suit is not as Sail Master, though that is his role on the ship. As he has been doing it a few times, I may end doing some XP for the next session, and perhaps they can bump that up a bit if they so choose. A they get somewhere near the border (and being nations mostly made of floating islands borders are a bit tricky. The surface is usually fog or cloud covered, so only the rare mountain peak shows up to help. And perhaps some of the major islands).
Somewhere crossing along, the ANS Mongoose shows up (Alderil Naval Ship). Captain Frank O'Toole has them heave to, grappling lines and boarding plank. Crossing over with Bosun Jonah, a line of merchant marines standing by on the ANS Mongoose, rifles at the ready. Batrine hands over the purloined papers as Leo comes up with a story about meeting the Free Trader Beowulf to transfer cargo. And no, a player came up with the name, not me. Of course, we then digress talking about Traveller. Which if I run it well, I do think they would enjoy, just not sure anyone else is really into SF as much as I am.
While Captain Penny took Captain O'Toole and Leo to his office for a spot of sherry (I had a really good reaction roll for the captain, though, though I also should have had Capt. Penny roll the equivalent of a charisma check. Hindsight! And I never seem to remember this when playing as this has come up before) Henry and Batrina lead Jonah to the empty cargo hold. A quick exploration shows nothing, and Jonah asked Henry something and he said that he and Batrina are married. A bit of a side-eye from Jonah, and he signs the paperwork, keeping a copy for himself and one for the Windrazor. The two captains part ways, and as the boarding ramp is withdrawn our crew can see Jonah whisper to his captain. Who then gives an odd yet appraising look towards Batrina and Henry. Batrina is not a happy bat person. Of course, we've yet to actually see her being happy so maybe this is just her normal state of being.
The rest of the day passes by uneventfully as they come up on Dulcet Spire. And apparently I did not make it clear that these are essentially city-states housing thousands of people. Leo does a quick tour guide spiel, having been here before (see, backstory in play! Though this one was on the fly based on his backstory) The top docks are the military docks, with several Empire ships there, getting built, repaired, re-provisioned, or whatever it is flying ships do at dock. The lower docks were for the merchants. There is a sprinkling of smaller, private docks for the nobles or perhaps a rich trade guild. Hmm, and they are flying the Trenner Trade Guild flag - I need to remember that!
The thing about the spires is that they are made by the Builders - people lost in history. The material is actually bonded super-dense, so yes, this is actually a world somewhere in my Traveller universe. TL 4 (1860-1900) or so, with a smattering of higher-level things floating about. The ships do not use the native repellium but are well-maintained fusion power plants keeping the grav engines running. There is a cadre of a semi-religious (at this point) engineers who manage the maintenance along with some AIs helping. Not sure any of that will show up in-game, but it is in my head and now out in the world. Could be post-Virus though I never played any of that. Could also just be a lost colony, and who knows, perhaps if I get crazy, I can have a starship come down at some point. Just some idle thoughts...
Anyway, they dock at the cheaper spot in the merchant docks. Miraculously, Leo looks again at the maps he copied at the map house and can see 2 peaks and another landmark that helps him orient on where the mine should be. The player rolled really well this time! I was starting to think my house is cursed for die rolls as she has not had many successful rolls in our game (her magic user got one 1 out of about 5 attempts in our last TFT game).
While Smitty takes care of the details, Henry makes a quick trip around the docks. He learns the places to pick up rumors would be Booger Bobs and Pinchwilly's (again, players came up with the names and I'll just stick with that). There was some discussion about shore leave - they have 3 cohorts of crew at the moment. The original crew, replenished by 6 crew from the trade guild ship, and a few from the trade station. Captain Peeny decides only those with seniority are allowed shore leave, with a midnight curfew. There was one sailor with a cross look, so he made sure that someone would keep an eye on him.
And that is where we left the game after almost 5 hours. Which really amounted to maybe 3 or less hours of actual play. But we are so easily sidetracked. Or at least I am.
 |
| Corsairs X-762570-4 |
Went back the fractal planet generator I've got. Copied and tweaked a color profile so I could get red seas so that parts of the world, such as where the 1st game was played, has the Molten Sea as per the Corsairs game. Those games are on the same physical world, just far apart. Long distance travel just does not happen too much as most people stick to the island clumps.
And the UWP is:
Starport X - no starport
Size: 7 - same size as Earth
Atmosphere: 6 - standard oxy/nitro mix and pressure.
Hydrographics: 2 - about 20% water. The Molten Sea is not water, but going with there are large bodies of water on the floating islands as well as on the surface where the monsters live. And people have the life expectancy of, well, not long.
Population: 5 - hundreds of thousands. Going with almost a million people, so P part of PBG is 9, about 900,000 people. And unknown number of native bat people (hello Batrina!)
Government: 7 - balkanized. As there are various governments. Though I just realized I transposed the last map over the Molten Seas to the new one that is over land masses. So, hmm, will have to retcon or something. Or perhaps they are all colonies from way back from each other or something like that.
Law Level: 0 - no real law.
Not entirely sure that is a fully compliant world but think it is. GM fiat is a good thing at times. There is also a world history, but I'll leave that for the players to decide if they want to start digging through ancient history books. It has been a couple hundred years at least since the Spires were constructed, and live the old SF trope of generation ships falling into disrepair and people forgetting where they are from (Star Treks I can Touch the Sky, The Star Lost, and Metamorphasis Alpha) I do have a few ideas, and will have to look at my Traveller Universe to see where it would fit. Definitely outside the Imperium and outside the League of Planets. Maybe one of those 'X' planets on the map that have no details. That map originated in college so I left room for things to be discovered.
 |
| D'Arlee Quadrant |
No comments:
Post a Comment