The world of Corsairs does exist in MTU, with the repellium being something that only works on this world due to the minerals, magnetic structure of the planet and stellar type (and add in any technobabble to fill in the holes). Of course, the mostly human population as no idea about the rest of the universe: the Builders created the Spires centuries ago. Early settlers that took advantage of the unique aspects of the world to create the floating cities. As with many science fiction stories, over the years they've forgotten their history, though there are history books and tapes buried in archives that have the details. Perhaps a few scholars may know the history. It was a one-way trip for the first settlers. Why? Something I'll have to play with later. Especially if I end up doing a Traveller game in MTU & the players visit Corsairs. That will be an interesting game!
Regardless, the world is now a TL 4 world, with sky pirates, floating islands, and in theory the danger of getting hit by falling sky whale poop. As they do poop for ballast reasons and it has to go somewhere. We've had some...interesting...discussions on some things. Our group, after some exploration, was heading back to the Dulcet Spire, not a whole lot better off than they were other than having a much better idea of where the mine is.
My group won't read this blog until I point it out after next week's game 😸, and as I've been organizing a few things, I re-found that the mine is held by the Lieford Family. And yes, they also use slaves, including the Batfolk such as Batrina. However, I also want to put in a bit of grey into the black and white world. Slavery is bad. No getting around that. But it is legal in the Alderil Empire, even though a fair number of people do not agree. The Lieford Family takes slavery a bit differently than many that embrace it: they see it more as indentured service. If the group starts poking into the holdings, they'll see that the Liefords free the slaves after a decade, giving them starting money and essentially expunging their records. Some have even returned to work for the family though that is rare. The mines on the surface are not as dangerous as other surface mines in that there are better protections against the rather violent fauna. The quarters for the slaves, while not lavish, are not just piles of hay and a bucket. The few guards that the mine employs are more to keep track of the surface creatures and protect the workers. While not by choice, the slave miners generally recognize that as abhorrent as slavery is, with the Liefords it is a temporary thing and they are not mistreated.
Bringing this up now to let it also stew in my head a bit. Murder hobos are great for some games, but who knows if that goblin you just killed is just some parent trying to make a living. Which is the basis of this Kickstarter, and no, I not backing it even though I do like the Merry Mushmen. I can really run the same thing with pretty much any game system, and as I have way too many to even play the ones I have, I am trying to be responsible! But I want there to be some moral reckoning in case they go in, guns and cutlasses blazing. Well, I suppose a cutlass won't blaze. Unless it is a laser cutlass!
One of the things I am thinking about sticking into the mine is an ancient ship that crashed centuries before. It would not be operational, but may make the players think more about the world and the universe it is in. Plus, I could use one of my posters from 0-Hr. And, err, yes, I am backing the latest one for a large space station. So much for being responsible! But one of these days we WILL play Full Thrust and I'll need my little spaceships!
And there are some interesting discussions over on COTI. The "1G ships cannot leave a world of 1G or more" discussion is always interesting though some get very adamant about their positions. I try not to: it is a game we play for fun and as with all RPGs, we each make it our own. The discussion came up about using a launch loop and they shot it down as completely unrealistic and not practical. It is a science fiction game based on pulp SF - for me it does not need to be realistic or practical. It has to have some basis in reality, and yes, as soon as you have magic grav and fusion technology, you really no longer need a lot of these sorts of things. And yes, there is a reason I bring this up in this post: sticking repellium and the world of Corsairs in MTU would probably not go over well with some people as being "not based in fact and/or unrealistic". There is a reason it is MTU. And the way Traveller started out, you could have a steampunk world next to a high-tech nirvana. The Traveller universe honestly does not make a lot of sense outside of the earlier pulp science fiction on which it is based. The Imperium grew from "something way over there" to basically taking over the OTU.
But I digress. I have been painting some of the stuff from Archon. Still a WIP but the plastic pile of shame is, well, still the plastic pile of shame. Though part of my organizing also managed to get some of the minis in the last box into storage with others of their kind: my goblin and kobold tubs have a few more friends now.
And hopefully for those who got snow, everyone stayed safe and warm. We got about 6" of snow.
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| we feed squirrels. I like squirrels |
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| goblin hut. well, one wall for testing. |
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| painting in progress. all 4 walls make the hut |
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| and a cardinal. |
Happy February! Yep - time is flying faster and faster. Though I still do not have a flying car.
