Pax Stellar - the Adventurers Arrive

We jumped over the week long trip in jump space, just noting that it is a good thing that there is a gym on the ship as Shenna, the Navy engineer, was going to town with the fresh food supplies.

Upon arriving in Pax Stellar space, they are met with stern Naval radio messages. Indicating that they have an Epsilon Indigo clearance, they are piped immediately to Admiral Mira Wescott. Normally a small task force with interdiction duties does not require the presence of an admiral. However, the nature of Pax Stellar and the risk and potential to the Imperium cannot be underestimated. She is one of a few dozen who know as much as there is to know about the system in the local task force. Pax Stellar was the primary system in the ancient empire, and has the most interesting and puzzling technologies. Admiral Wescott maintains a berth in the Crucible station in ring sector one in the VIP quarters. She has the Anomolies Run crew meet here at the captain's office near the main control section. A brief conversation about Osrum and the actual plan: get to the power anomaly using Osrum as an ambassador. So far the Navy researchers have been stymied and cannot approach closer than 70 kilometers or so before they are blocked. The group agrees to continue to escort our barbarian from Planet Bob back to his home world.

After a refreshing meal in the café, under the stars, they take a bumpy ride down planet in a Nirvana class drop ship (thanks Robert Pearce - see Yet Another Traveller Blog in my list for his fantastic work). It is a bumpy ride down - the pilot wants to go as fast as possible to avoid any catastrophes and technology failure. They pass by a large, whale-like floating filter that synthesizes hydrogen from the atmosphere, and manage an abrupt stop at research station two. There are the sounds of the pod release and son after, the sounds of the drop ship attaching to another pod and leaving as fast as possible.

The rear of the pod drops open and they are met by a field researcher, an ex-Navy flight officer who is now researching the weird science of Pax Stellar. She and the admiral do not get along, and Esther Inchara calls her Iron-Face Westwood.

They get into the steam powered ATV, and with a toot of the steam whistle, off they go. The power source is only a hundred or so kilometers from the research station, and as they approach the only pass into the area, they are blocked by a mountainous "metal" as Osrum calls them (image from Michael Murdock's Dr Mordecai Crowley's Journal of Interplanetary Travels which was a book from a Kickstarter that ended up being the source for images for Pax Stellar.

Osrum gets out to communicate with the vast creature. It takes a few tries, but eventually, an hour or more later, the gargantuan creature moves out of the way, and with another toot of the steam whistle (Esther swears it is necessary to calibrate the steam engine. Honest!) the steam-powered ATV trundles forward. A bit later, they come into the open area in the middle of the mountain range, where there are native buildings and humans working the fields.

One of the better dressed humans comes up, speaking a language no one, including Osrum, can understand. However, a few minutes later the leader speaks perfect Anglic, telling the Travellers he has been expecting them, and that Gerdy, their god, is waiting upon them.

Leaving the ATV behind, the group treks a few kilometers to where they see what appears to be a modern building, a large communication array mounted on the roof. The natives had built housing from the native stone and timbers, and this building would fit into any modern city. For a 3,000 year old building it was in remarkable shape.

The High Priest, for that is their guide, explains that they drop off offerings, often requested offerings, to Gerdy. Our group gives up some jewelry and knickknacks they have to a small robot, that then disappears into a small elevator.

The walk around the building to the front and enter. There is a foyer just past the front hall, and a holographic image welcomes them.

And then we ran out of time.

Not sure when this adventure will be picked back up - there are several other games in the queue so we'll just have to see if people will want to continue or not.

Next post I'll try & do a post-mortem on the game. What I think I did right, what really needs improvement.

Session 8 Prep - Will they get there?

The original premise of this adventure, a follow-up from what I thought may be a one shot premade adventure, was to get Osrum of Planet Bob, known to the Imperium as Pax Stellar, and explore an anomaly there. Pax Stellar, for a quick recap, is part of a 3 system former interstellar mini-empire that never achieved jump capacity, yet had medical, computer and cybernetic technology far beyond Imperial norms. About 3,000 years ago there was some sort of collapse, and the humans have reverted to a sort of post-apocalyptic barbarian tribes scattered over the world. Imperial technology just stops working within 2-12 hours and after more than a century of research, they believe that there is still an active nanotechnology that breaks down foreign tech. There are a lot of mechanical and fully organic life forms. The natives, of which Osrum is one, calls the mechanical life the metals. Recently, there has been an odd power surge noted from satellites high above the planet's atmosphere near research station PS-2. All attempts to get close to that odd power source have failed - the metals seem to protect that area. And despite excellent optics and satellite imagery, the Imperium has no idea what is happening. As Osrum is wanting to return to Planet Bob with a variety of objects he has picked up from the outside universe, the Navy, which guards Pax Stellar, feels that a native may be able to get to the power source.  So Project Parfait was born, and Our Travellers are brought on-board to escort Osrum to the planet surface and from station two, traverse via a steam-powered ATV to the power anomaly.

So, recap aside, the players got from Q'antar, site of their kidnapping and release, took a A2 Far Trader to D'Arlee to get to the Marquessa's Cygnus Class Lab Ship the now named Anomolies Run, where they accepted the job from Admiral Reginald Dor Grigori. I actually got around to writing up that paper (which is Navy security paper - it has microdots with authentication codes buried in the print. Very hard to near impossible to forge as it uses some sort of blockchain like technology to ensure when and how that document got created. But I digress). From D'Arlee they made their first jump to Iac and assisted the Axion class freighter with Captain Mary Sally fight off space rats of an unusual size. As a reward, they got a case of 50 bottles of fancy wine and thanks as well as an offer for future assistance if needed. There was some discussion that piqued Captain Mary Sally's interest, as she is part of the Cytec Hemogeny and very interested in the Singularity (the whole focus of this branch of humanity). I've not decided just how curious yet...

We were missing a couple of players, so session 7 played out in retrieving furniture. In a bad part of town, and apparently gauss bullets can chew up whatever road surface they have there. There is still one player who has not shown up at all, and if he manages to show up on this last for a bit meeting, we'll have to figure out how to incorporate his character into the game.

I've been using the RPG Suite to roll up Navy characters, trying to get one of a high enough rank to be in charge of the task force guarding the Pax Stellar systems.Let us just say it took a LOT of characters getting rolled up before I finally got one who both survived and managed to stay in the Navy. As I also got the Element Class cruiser boxed set from Mongoose (and knowing nothing about Navy stuff real or Traveller) I am using that as a source. So, from reading the notes about the Navy forces:

Task Force EC-1031 has three Ghalalk class Cruisers, one for each of the planets.

• Karliku patrols Pax Stellar
• Giadsha patrols Dunkumme
• Usharku patrols Celtiz

Each cruiser has 1 missile pod (5,760 missiles per pod, just in case they need to destroy the planet) and 1 intelligence gathering pod. Sadly, the intelligence staff have been confounded constantly by the systems and as of yet, unable to interpret any signals that originate from the planets. They do know that there is a communications net that takes years for the conversations to transfer between worlds on what appears to be laser links. Either encrypted or using entirely unknown languages, the communications are monitored and scientists have been attempting to decrypt them for decades to no avail.

In addition to the 3 cruisers are a host of other Navy supporting ships including tankers and flight support wings that have fast fighters that are on constant patrol duty throughout each system. There are several couriers, and communication between the three systems is on a weekly schedule, and a monthly schedule to Dura's Naval port to be further transferred to the Imperium at large. 

The Pax Stellar task force is an Epsilon Indigo clearance only - very high security and very few people outside of Naval Intelligence know about it.

Admiral Mira Westwood is in charge of the Pax Stellar Task Force. A native of Tsarina, she was a graduate of the Naval Academy at Glisten with Honors. She showed an early interest in cybernetics. She joined the flight branch, and in her first tour of duty she foiled a minor smuggling ring. She was promoted to sublieutenant, picking up some blade, electronic and leadership skills in tracking down the culprits. She did not make friends with the private investigator at the heart of the smuggling ring. 

Her next tour of duty got her to the edge of the Imperium. Apparently while enamored over new worlds, her specialized training did not take well, although she was promoted to lieutenant. She worked out a lot at the gym on board, increasing her dexterity. 

During her third tour, she was in the middle of the Battle of Dolberg, a yellow-zoned world in the Trojan Reach. She managed to pilot the capital ship Surnashi during some outstanding maneuvers as well as get promoted to commander. She also picked up Naval tactics during the weeks-long battle and follow-up against the pirates. 

Her fourth tour brought her into the Naval Base as Bastion. Thinking it more a friendly competition, she bested the rich noble in a duel, and he has had it out for her ever since. She was promoted to captain.

Her fifth tour brings her to Pax Stellar. She apparently also managed to get under the skin of one of the researchers there, but was also promoted to admiral. And is in charge of the task force. And has been for almost 3 years now.

Admiral Westwood is a stern-faced woman who has spent almost her entire life in the Navy. Never-the-less, she maintains a large personal residence on the Pax Stellar moonbase where nice furniture may have a home...

And there may be issues with that character generator - in the Navy it is pretty easy to keep getting your social bumped up. She is at level 19. I am going to apply that as just in the Pax Stellar systems - she is seen as the end-all to everything going on there. 

On the bright side of all those characters I generated, some will end up being the researchers on planet that will help with our group. And one apparently will not be liking the high and mighty Admiral Westwood. 

Session 7 - Picking up furniture

After Morgana and Iva head back to the ship, Qat, Osrum and Max approach the concierge of the port hotel to get information about transferring 12 dTons of furniture from a warehouse to the ship. The very chipper concierge finds the only Rent-A-Stevedore in town (yes, it is now a thing in my universe) that has a truck large enough to transport 3 4dTon cargo containers full of fancy furniture from the warehouse to the port and be able to load it on the ship itself. A 4 ton container is about the same size as a shipping container, and fortunately the ship has two capacious cargo bays that are normally loaded with science gear and supplies.

After warning our Travellers that Warehouse 31 is in a not particularly nice area of town, and then becoming aware of the Navy issue gauss rifle that Max is carrying, he indicates that the Rent-A-Stevedore should have its representative in shortly, and they can wait in the lounge where breakfast is currently being served.

Finishing their repast, a strapping young man shows up and introduces himself as Jon Smith. He has the lead car out front with the wide flashing "Wide Load" sign blinking, and behind that is Big Mac, a large grav vehicle that will be used to transport the loads. They drive on to the warehouse, meet the gruff manager, and with the transfer of the ship's Cr60,000 they were entrusted with, start moving out lot 381. The warehouse manages to move the first crate to the bed of Big Mac, the three stevedores strapping it down and verifying it is safe to go. The Travellers do notice a couple of homeless people watching with interest but nothing untoward. The small convoy goes back to the port and manages to transfer the container to the port cargo bay. Big Mac has a nice extendable crane to maneuver large loads. The second trip is equally mundane, and the homeless people have wandered off. On the third and final trip, though, there seems to be a small group of people waiting near the warehouse. As the final container is getting loaded on the grav truck bed, they start to approach. It also appears that they have weapons, mostly crowbars and the like. While the stevedores are unaware of this, being behind the container and loading, Max, Osrum and Qat take some alarm and prepare themselves. Max's version is to shoot a spray of gauss needles in front of the group. The hypersonic needles make small sonic booms before they splatter the road material all over the group, along with small shards of what remains of those bullets. As this was a result of digging up the road a bit, the group was not seriously injured but ran away. At this point, the group decides to look inside the containers to verify that yes, there is indeed furniture in the container. The rest of the final trip goes uneventfully as they load the last container into the cargo bay with the other containers.

Now the plan is that this expensive furniture, bought at well below the market value, will have a high resale value over at Pax Stellar. While the Navy ships won't particularly use it, there is both a Crucible class station in orbit as well as a large and sprawling base on one of the two moons. Some of the people have been stationed there for years, and Sabsawa feels that some of the more well-off scientists, who can get quite snooty, may want to revel in expensive furniture.

There is also a smaller cache of entertainment gear that she managed to pick up, straining the current budget a bit. Those crates are in the other cargo bay along with Osrum's miscellaneous cargos and the air raft.

Fine Hellaborian Wood Furniture

Session Pre - Searching for cargo

While the rest of the crew was out shopping and eating in interesting places, our valiant and capable ship's administrator/purser/partial owner of the Anomolies Run was busy scouring the local nets for cargos that may prove useful to the next world, Pax Stellar. Taking into account that is a red zoned world and patrolled by the Imperial Navy, she suspected small goods, particularly in the entertainment area, would be a good thing to look into.

Despite getting an excellent price on some cheap rocket skates (with no formal government, a very low law level, and somewhat captive population working at the starport, entertainment can become quite extreme.

Below is the list of items Sabsawa has scrounged up as possible cargoes. Knowing the ship currently has about 50 tons of available tonnage (4 tons is taken by Oeg's air raft, and Osrum has about a ton of things he has also picked up along the way), and knowing everything had to be available for ships and stations only, she limited her searches that range of items.

First, the port itself is willing to pay for records transfer to the Navy. This is supplemental mail and Naval public briefings, a large electronic cache stored on 2 encrypted drives. Seeing as there are currently 3 Naval officers on board, as well as an ex-Navy Lt, they can transfer the data.

The 2 tons of rocket skates were considered briefly for the base on the moon but dropped when considering potential insurance costs.

There were 4 dTons of VR entertainment units that are sitting over at warehouse 31. These were to be transshipped but the traders never showed up. Currently impounded for storage fees and available.

There is 12 dTons of luxury furniture, made of Hellboria wood. Originally planned for the cousin three times removed of the grandson of the Wescott family patriarch, the furnishings did not go with the rest of the house. Created by Rafael Tagliatelli, this is exquisitely designed and beautiful furniture consisting of a complete living room, library and bedroom set.

• Naval records and supplemental mail: Cr10,000
• 2dTons Acme Rocket Skates: Cr 90,000
• 4 dTons VR equipment: Cr60,000 (she rolled an 11 on purchase price - 40%!)
• 12 dTons luxury furniture: Cr85,000 (not such a good roll)

And no, I did not actually roll on the tables. I did use the actual value table to set the base price for the VR (using it as computer parts, base price Cr150,000). The other prices are made up - I know there is a mail contract in the rules some place. I thought book 2 would have it as it as the ship design as well as the cargo stuff. But alas, I could not find it. I do remember it actually required a physical safe locker, but as this is going to be on two small crystal drives, the ship captain's safe will suffice.

Session 6 - Safe to Port

I think I may have miscounted...I believe the last session was session 5, not 4. The now named lab ship, the Anomolies Run, along with the Axion class freighter and two Mercy class rescue ships, arrive and land safely at Iac's Downport.

The port is fairly large, but the two ships are on adjacent landing pads and well within walking distance. Although the thin atmosphere does not allow for a lot of activity until the Travellers acclimatize. There is the faint smell of creosote as they meet Captain Mary Sally, or is that Sally Mary, at the cavernous cargo lock of the Cytec trader. She vaguely resembles Seven of Nine from Voyager - she does have some implants that are visible. Thanks are again given and one of the more heavily augmented crewmen bring out a crate of 50 bottles of Deerian wine. Each bottle is worth about Cr150, so about Cr7,500 for killing the devious space rats. It may also be useful for bartering or trading later. I'll have to work up some more info about Deerian Wine, but I did make a simple label for it. Apparently it won the Grand Prix in 1101, and the bottles they have are about 20 years old, close to reaching their peak value.

There was a somewhat length conversation - the Cytec are wanting to achieve the Singularity, and so are becoming more intertwined with their computer systems. They are starting to add computer systems to themselves, and most of their ship systems are a virtual or augmented reality. These systems are like the Zhodani psionic controls: without the right stuff, not operable by non-Cytec enhanced people. Although there are some safeguards and manual processes. Fortunately, Max's TL 15 suit has built-in VR and augmentation abilities and, as per the last update, managed to interface with that ship's system.

Osrum, honest soul that he is, also started talking about Planet Bob. While on a somewhat secret mission to Pax Stellar, few people outside of high Imperial offices know the reality of why those worlds are red zoned. His fellow Travellers had a somewhat heated discussion on this until Sabsawa stuck her head outside of her cabin and mentioned that perhaps now would be a good time to register the ship officially and set up the itinerary for the next leg of their journey. Shenna came up before they left, and gave Morgana a shopping list. She and the crew were getting a bit tired of the Navy food that was supplied, and having a Steward-1 skill, does like to cook and would try & make things a bit better for the crew. Sabsawa was going to stay in her stateroom and see about brokerages and cargo they could possibly carry for some profit. The dry air of Iac does not sit will the her Bwap skin.

Getting onboard a port transport bus, they get driven around the multitude of warehouses and other ships to get to the large administration building. There, they attempt to enter their official next destination and the clerk, knowing that the world is a Red Zone world brought in his manager. After verifying that the crew knew that the next port of call was well within an Imperial Navy Red Zone, he entered the information and wished them well. He was also very curious as to why but Osrum only asked about nearby parks.

About to leave, they are approached by what appears to be a young urchin. She had overheard that they were needing to get into town to get a better variety of goods that were offered at the port. Her uncle, she claimed, had an excellent grocery and restaurant business. And she knew a driver... However, the group decided to rent a taxi for the day, having been around the ports more than once before.

Hitting the town, they find a good place to eat. The Acme, Inc restaurant had a gift store in the front, and one of the things that caught the Travellers eyes were the Rocket Skates. Iva, a sports fanatic, eyed them a bit before they were seated. The specialty of the house was karia bird, a road-runner like bird. Their waitress took their order, and when questioned about the rocket skates, admitted she was a fan and showed off some fairly impressive scars and scrapes. Dr. Morgana gave her a tube of ointment that would help heal, and the waitress did mention the local aloe-like plants that had some significant healing properties. She also said that the skates in the gift shop where not that great, and if they wanted better, Frankie's down the road had an excellent selection. He also had the chutes in case they wanted to base jump. According to the waitress, there is nothing like shooting off one of the cliffs and seemingly to hang in the air before starting to fall. The death rate was actually lower than you would think...

They left and picked up the additional groceries and supplies as listed, and went back to the port. Shenna and Oeg met them at the main area in his pristine 1094 Ling air raft, and as the ship engineers headed back to the ship, the Travellers got a hotel with extensive bath facilities.

And G+ is going way very soon. I'll miss that little alert thing for when people read my posts...I'll still be posting here on a fairly regular basis. But I won't be joining yet another group thing. So please check back once in a while, and I do post over on COTI (one of the sites listed on this blog).

Iac - A Bit More Detail

As the players managed the rescue of the Axion class merchant, they are heading to Iac after all. There they can refuel, restock, and see what Captain Sally of the Cytec ship will give them in reward for assisting with their rather tumultuous exit from jump space.

I've expanded a bit on Iac: still a poor, non-industrial world. The class A port on a planet with 3,000 inhabitants requires that the port population is not counted in the official Scout records. I've made the port mostly self-contained with a small startown that is more sleepy bedroom community than startown. Although with the law level of 1, you can pretty much buy anything you want here, if you can find it and can afford it. All those warehouses in the port must contain some really interesting items!

Session 4 - Rats on a starship

In retrospect, I really should have had the rats dropping out of the air ducts.

Session 4, 139-1105. Yes, I established the date.  The Travellers in the as yet unnamed Lab Ship come out of jump space a bit further out than expected from Iac. Alarms are blaring and there is an automated distress signal from a ship at close range. Apparently in a surprisingly strange coincidence, another ship had come out of jump far too close at about the same time. This was a Cytec ship and was tumbling in an out of control manner.

We were missing three players this time, so this was a fortuitous happenstance. While the characters of the players not present stayed on board the Lab Ship, three of our characters were to go across to the tumbling ship. The pilot Sir Max, managed to overshoot the ship initially but came around on the second pass. Iac port was sending up two emergency response ships, but even at 6G they were an hour away.

As Lt. Oeg had an air/raft, and the shuttle was too large to fit in the airlock of the Axion class cargo craft, the Lt piloted the craft over to the drifting and rotating craft. Osrum did manage to not throw up, but did get ejected from his seat during the maneuvers. It was either Qat or Max who dragged him back in. They went through the top port, which is a grav chute through the entire four deck craft. The top deck presented what appeared to be normal, and empty, staterooms. The next deck presented the bridge deck, which was locked. There was a constant flashing of red warning lights as well a low siren. Out of the corners of their eyes, Qat and Osrum both noticed something that skittered behind them as they were working on the door. Sir Max recognized the interface as a VR interface, and with his TL 15 Scout suit, managed to unlock the door. And they then saw the space rats!

Of course, 1 rate vs a VRF Gauss gun does not stand much of a chance, and fortunately Max killed it with the single shot. A gauss round in a starship is generally not a good idea. And despite the alarms going off, apparently the ship roombas still worked as the rat's remains were rapidly cleaned up and removed.

Still wearing their suits, worried about it being a plague ship, they found that there were several engineering warnings. And as spacers, they knew that an infestation of these rats easily leads to chewed wires, conduits and other ship-wide damages. They also found that the ship had placed the entire crew into emergency sleep mode, something very similar to the Borg regeneration. The Cytec branch of humanity are trying to move to the singularity and represent a fringe trans-humanist ideal.

Waking the captain, who came to the bridge and turned off the alarms, they found the various nests via internal ship sensors. They flooded the cargo bay with the anti-fire retardant which killed the vast majority. While they thought about opening the cargo bay doors, the ship crew quarters were on the 2nd deck of the cargo area, and their doors were not air-tight.

While Sir Max and Captain Sally went to the engineering section to repair the damage as best they could, Qat and Osrum went rat hunting with stunners and a crow bar. It was short work to get the remaining two groups, and the ship had basic repairs done and managed to stop spinning.

By this time, the emergency crews had caught up, and we left the session with all the ships heading to Iac.

Which means I need to detail Iac a bit more as I did not expect them to actually visit much. But it will also give us a chance to the last player into the game - he missed the first few sessions and we need to get him introduced in there.

Captain Sally will also being gifting the lab ship crew with some of her cargo in thanks. I need to figure out what that ship may be carrying as well.

Space Rats

Okay, I believe the image is actually a dire rat, but it was an interesting image that will work for me. Not sure where I got it - although I am leaning towards a D&D site. Sorry I don't have the source link - blame my digital hoarding.

Also - not much longer before G+ goes away (in a rat-like manner no less). I'll still be updating this blog for both the games I play as well as any software I write (one of these days I will get back to the Traveller Tracker, promise!)  I post on COTI as coliver988 (I tend to be unimaginative with user names). I am not a Facebook user, nor will I join one of the now far too many other sites trying to keep some of the wonderful goodness we are losing with the demise of G+. And who knows when they may pull the plug on this as well: as per all big companies, you never know where they will go. I may have to eventually host stuff myself. And as most of the stuff I post here are copies of things I have anyway, I should be good to go no matter what.

Regardless - here are the tradits, a mutated rat that infests everyplace that humanity has got to. My players shall be encountering a murder of them next session in all likelihood. A group of tradits is a murder, just like a group of crows.

Session 4: Meet the engineering department

It was a bit more of a lackluster gaming session than I would have liked, but D'Arlee is a civilized world with high law levels, and the Travellers are all, for the most part, law-abiding Imperial citizens.

So, the day after Morgana's welcome home party the group returns to the starport to review the ship and the new Navy crew. The NPCs were rolled by RPGSuite, and it took me a while to get 3 Navy engineers. I also rolled for random race and gender, and ended up with a human female, Vargr male and Aslan female. I've only the 1 character card so far, but will probably make the others so I can use them when I am "playing" those characters.

  Lt Oeg "Egg" Aghdzoksdhaekhsfudzzong is the chief engineer, a Naval Academy Honors graduated who is serving in his 3rd term. He has been on diplomatic missions, foiled a major crime on board a Naval vessel (hmm, perhaps something to do with the Saki-Ryant Consolidated Networks Group?), and had advanced training. It was during this year that he picked up a pristine 1092 Ling Standard mk6A air/raft. It has been somewhat embellished outside of Navy norms with an interestingly contrasting paint job and some quite unnecessary fins that "really make it go faster". It was stowed in the cargo area of the lab ship with permission from the captain.  Lt Oeg has wide experience in all engineering systems. He also enjoys flying fixed and rotary wing craft.

  Petty Officer 3rd Class Shenna Barrick has risen fairly quickly through the ranks working in the Engineering/Gunner sections of the Imperial Navy. A tiny woman with green-tinged hair (within the boundaries of Naval culture and protocol), Shenna specializes in engineering power systems, and tinkers with Oeg's air/raft to see if she can get a better power ratio. She can actually fly it, whereas Oeg is still learning grav vehicle. She participated in the 4th Cytec Hegomemy Convention, representing the D'Arlee Naval Group 1134 along with the rest of her crew. She has actually met with the reclusive Cytecs.

The final member of the Naval Engineering group for the lab ship is young Crewman Heeahfi "Sneezy" Fteftaistiysiyei. She also gradated the Naval Academy of D'Arlee, and has published in the Naval Archives a treatise on ancient weapons, a comparison of Human and Aslan ancient weapons. However, in her first term her immediate supervisor made an error that caused a rapid decompression in a cargo hold, and killed several crewmembers. Sneezy was blamed initially but the truth did come out, leaving her still in the Navy. As a partial recompensation she was given a membership in the Traveller's Aid Society. She has not yet decided if this will be her final tour of duty. She specializes in life support.

Trying another PDF for the crime syndicate:

Player Cards v2

Added a bit of color and the birthday of the characters. Established that we are sometime in 1105 s back-tracked all the players and had a random day assigned as their birthday.  I also established their birth worlds. Imperial citizens have that Imperial logo on there, non-Imperial do not. Only Osrum is not an Imperial citizen. All the characters except 1 come from D'Arlee. Max is from Rhylanor as the player indicated his character came from a core world and wanted to get away from a far too civilized world.

I've also added the card for the Captain of Finn's Tripper, and the lab ship's new chief engineer, as well as a ground crew tag for the port. Just in case I need to have someone wandering around the ship at some port at some time in the future.

I've printed it out on card stock and they came out pretty nice, I do believe.  I'll be able to hand these out next game night.

This is the sort of thing I love to do. I have expanded out my D&D Paladin's backstory in concert with the DM to fit her world. That paladin is the youngest of 8 siblings from 2 different mothers. As the character generation indicated he had a scroll of ancestry, I created his family tree based on maps of Greyhawk as he is of nobility. Back when I played Traveller, I did the same sort of thing with my characters: expanded out the home worlds, and any tech they got I usually designed and got approved by the referee. Only 1 player has the rules for Traveller, although I did send them the link the RPG DriveThru when it was offering Starter Traveller for free. So I don't expect my players to get quite as involved as I do in just creating stuff.

The medal is from Meteoric Assault from COTI. As Max has a medal for gallantry, his card is doubled over so he has a copy of the medal as needed.

Session 3: Welcome Home!

Session 3 saw most of the players back, as well as a new player. Fortunately, using Cepheus Engine rules part of the character generation involves contacts, so our new player is playing Detective Inspector "Iva" Zoeoeztha Dhasvoengrrang, an ex-Police detective. She was heavily into sports and the Doctor and her family watched those exciting soccer games, and after "hat one time you made that amazing save...and then managed to somehow, despite having digigrade feet, managed to kick the ball all the way across the field" they made friends with each other.

Anyway: Finn's Tripper, the A2 trader, lands in the Antares SB&TS landing area at the D'Arlee Down port. This is a busy starport, a small city basically, and ASB&TS leases a chunk of the port for trade, minor ship construction and repairs, and so forth. This is one of the ways that the Port Authority gets money. While it is not 100% "then Imperium owns and controls the port" it is within those boundaries I think. And I just like the idea.

As the air lock opens on a balmy day, the crew and our Travellers are met by both the port authorities as well as a small Naval group. The Travellers get their weapons returned from the ship's locker, the three criminals in low berths are transferred to the Port Police to be defrosted and interrogated, and the Naval Attache indicates that the Navy Lab Ship, a Cygnus Class vessel (Kickstarter / 0-Hr poster and mini. I so like to have pretty deck plans!) is ready for their inspection and the official turn-over from the Navy to Dr. Morgana Greyborne. There is also a request to meet the base commander at their earliest convenience for a possible service they group may be able to help with.

Also at the port is Iva, waiting to check up on her lost and now friend. She has recently retired from the local police force, and is wanting to explore more of the universe. So now we've managed to get everyone together with the ship that they will be using.

The ship is partially owned by Morgana, Lt. Sir Max is also trading in his ship shares as does Sabsawa the Bwap and Osrum the Barbarian who somehow has several ship shares. So currently the percentage of the ship is:  40% Morgana, 2% Sabsawa, 4% Max, and 8% Osrum. The remainder is similar to the Scout ship: the ship is basically on permanent loan from the Navy, and at times their services may be required.

The ship was inspected: extremely clean and smelling sterile. Specifics are given below so we don't have too much of a wall of text.

The group manages to get cleaned up and have a minor shopping trip to get clothing not scavenged from the test site back on Q'Antar. Feeling better, they also make any calls as necessary, and Morgana's mother would like to have a small get together that evening to celebrate her daughter's safe return.  Before leaving, they do check in with the Commandant of the base. He has a proposition for the group, as well as revealing information about our barbarian friend Osrum.

Apparently, three red-zoned worlds, known as the Pax Stellar, are under close scrutiny of the Navy and Scouts. There is technology there that befuddles the Imperium. A recent spike in energy readings from a facility has them very interested in what is going on. Unfortunately, they have been completely unable to get there: all three worlds are inimical to Imperial technology. Nothing works more than a few hours before breaking down and becoming useless (see previous blog postings on that). Osrum, being a native of the planet, actually has viable nano-technology in his blood. And we can go with this is also how he ended up with some ship shares: the Navy really wants to keep an eye on him! After signing a contract (which was reviewed by Sabsawa, the groups legal advisor), they are offered a job: get to Pax Stellar, get down to the planet via a drop ship, and visit the facility. The group agrees, then off to the family get together after a bit of an issue actually leaving the port do to filling out the forms.

The Marquessa's mother is the Imperial representative of the planet (borrowing some from T5 here). Her estates border the capital city and extend for hectares. The group notices a large number of vehicles parked in the visitors area from their vantage in the grav taxi. Landing, they are ushered in and introduced by the seneschal. Who does manage to get all the proper names and titles presented. It is a much larger gathering than expected, and Morgana's father is just overcome with emotions and has to leave. This particularly noble family is matriarchal and the positions pass through the female line.

It was quite the party. And that's where we ended that session.

Showing an image of the shuttle and ship. As previously noted, the nacelles are mostly fuel tanks, not Star Trek warp drives. Yeah, fuel tanks...

I've also rolled up 3 Navy characters for the engineers: while the original group had a couple of engineers, not all players did come back (D&D was too strong a draw :) ).  Next post I'll outline them as they do have some minor back stories, and one does have an air/raft that oddly he cannot drive (he has fixed and rotor wings for drive - being a Vargr he does like to have a bit more of a thrill in flying). And as the Navy is underwriting the next couple months in terms of paying for salaries and fuel (Cr50,000 to top off those tanks!) they do want a presence on board. And there are barracks in this ship.

(image from the 0-Hr Cygnus PDF set)

Current ship status (parts from the PDF with the Cygnus class ship)

The ship has been stripped of advanced sensors and all weapons.
Originally the ship had a Computer/25 and a Core/70 along with extensive software packages
and military level sensor packages. The computer was replaced by a Computer/15 and Core/50.
While it retains the generate and jump software, as well as basic library functions, remaining
software was not re-installed on the new systems. The 15 is the bandwidth and controls what
software you can have running at the same time. For instance, to make a jump, that’s all that
can be in the computer from jump entry to exit of jump.
Sensors are civilian grade, a step above basic sensors. Sensor pallets are scattered over the
hull, currently mostly empty.
Turrets were removed. There are 10 hardpoints where turrets and weapons may be re-added.
Gunnery software and gunners would be required.
Internal security mostly remains. Cameras are in most public spaces (bridge, cargo, lounge).
Internal software systems maintain a hard level (12+) to access without correct authentication.
Authentication may be password (spoken or typed), biometrics such as eye or hand scanners or
other combinations. Physical locks requiring a physical key are also available but not currently
in use on the ship.
Doors have locks. External airlock doors have heightened security locks in place, also hard
(12+) to bypass. Internal systems vary by area. Crew staterooms have average (8+) locks on
them, the labs all have hard locks, as does access to the bridge and the various ships lockers
spread throughout the ship.
Grav plates can vary from 0 (off) to 2G. In MTU (My Traveller Universe) I borrow from one of the
Star Trek manuals: losing power will cause the gravity to slowly be set down to 0 in about 2
hours. However, you can turn gravity on and off, and this does represent a possible
anti-hijacking possibility. It is not instantaneous: 10 seconds per G unless you can override the
safeties, so no playing ping pong with pirates. But you can make it difficult. Grav plating is by
major section (the larger grids).
The shuttle is still present:Novemere-class ShuttleThe Novemere is the 9th generation of a common shuttle craft design found throughout Imperial
space. This particular shuttle (designated “Novemere Alpha”) has been refit to accommodate a
pair of senor and science stations. The original configuration had additional seating in this area,
allowing it to comfortably transport eight people instead of just four. There is an equipment
locker accessible beneath the carpet in the middle of the floor. It contains emergency vacuum
suits,tools, and supplies

Player Cards

Trying to help the players a bit, so playing around with some ID cards I can print out for them to have. Publishing here to get their feedback.

Somewhere (probably the forms book) there are sample ID cards for a variety of services. I've got 8 of them printed out but heck if I can find them in the literally 1000's of Traveller documents I have. They are a research station card, Scout ID, Naasirka, Tukera Lines, Marine, Navy, Makhidkarun and the 4518th Lift Infantry Regiment ID cards.

So I will need to up my game a bit to make these a bit fancier. I do stick their primary "certifications" on the front - I will probably do the reverse to hold all their skills. I also am planning on printing out cards for the weapons they have: we're doing Classic and some kind soul managed to create all the weapon cards (one of the 1000's of Traveller files I have...) Just need to pull out at least one of each. And I have a printer and card stock.

And apparently I need to ge tin touch with Qat to see what her primary skills are!

A Vargr and an Aslan walk into a bar...

Well, actually, the group only has a Vargr. Working on prepping for session 3. There may be a bar involved so  I am checking to see if a perhaps excessively large Lego collection can work for miniatures. Maybe I can play the Star Wars Cantina song in the background, but there is no band. Maybe a holographic on the big square behind the counter.

I also purchased the Diverse Roles career book from Gypsy Knight Games as they were having a sale in honor of John Watts moving full time into publication. Fortunately I had the rules and core setting book (from a Bag of Holding Sale - apparently I am not only a sucker for Kickstarter but also sales!). Those are required to use the book fully (which is good as I was having problems following the Space Patrol book from Stellagama Publishing - as they both use the same core Cepheus Engine rules I can now figure that out as well).  I bring this up as that book has, amongst the other careers, an Organized Crime career. As the players found some leads, and I have some angry characters, I feel they may follow up on the leads. And for that I need some organized crime NPCs and a bar so we can have a fun bar fight. If we actually get there, the plan is for damage to be only temporary and heal faster than normal unless real weapons come out.  Then all bets are off.

One of the player's characters is a Barbarian from Planet Bob, aka Pax Stellar. The character is unaware that he has nanites in his system and that's what lets him talk with his mechanical pet / familiar (I think there is a post somewhere with some images from a Kickstarter book that I am incorporating into MTU). I've not decided yet if he will have slightly faster healing abilities or not - I don't want a super hero game, but do like little positive quirks for the players. We'll play that by ear.

The bar is from something I found years ago and for some reason printed out. It is finally getting used.

I also have a few games with miniatures - I need to see if those may work as well. In fact, that is the primary reason I backed the Zombicide SF game (and can't recall the name now) - it has a lot of minis, and several fit well within the Traveller Universe. The game mechanics are also pretty fun (basically a B-grade zombie movie, and the game is cooperative: either you all win or you all die. Usually die.)

Session 2 Game Recap: From Q'Antar to D'Arlee

We had a different set of players out sick the last session. But to recap our adventure to date:

The first session brought the Travellers to the Q'Anatar starport, consisting of a few ferrocrete landing pads and four beat up 30 ton modules. Met at the port by the port staff, all three of them, the sheriff and one Lenard Catlow, they discovered a larger plot, found strong evidence of ill-deeds at the Catlow Range, and gathered some leads as to contacts on D'Arlee.

Finn's Tripper, an AL2m Dione class Far Trader, had just returned from picking up cargo from several other proving sites to be shipped back to D'Arlee. While our Travellers had no credits, being the victims of the skill-jacking crew. the doctor's assistant, Sabsawa, did have a credit card, and managed to book passage on the ship.  The 3 prisoners were transferred to the low berths to stand trial and whatever is needed on D'Arlee as there are no facilities on Q'Antar for prisoners. With a population of just 10 people living in a pseudo-steam punk western world, its all they can do to farm and get by at times. The mayor/sheriff/judge Agerimo Cigomas, packed in all the evidence and added quite a letter condemning  Lenard Catlow.

The Travellers are brought aboard, weapons stored in a locker next to the starboard air lock, and presented their rooms. Sabsawa immediately sets the humidity of her room to the maximum allowed by the environmental system.

At a suggestion from Qat, the ship's launch is delayed while the crew reviews the cargo to verify that there are no EMPs involved on this trip. After an extensive search, the cargo is cleared, and the ship launches. They make an easy transition to jump, and during the week, do general cleanup as best they can, as they are wearing a mismatching set of clothing they got from the initial proving grounds.

As we were missing a couple of people, including the character whose ship they were going to, we decided to go and end that session as they come out of jump space, and view the bustling world of D'Arlee.

D'Arlee is the capital of the quadrant and has over 10 billion inhabitants. It has a very busy class A starport.  I may play with some ideas posted on G+ about exiting the port: they will need to roll the local government level or above (or was that law level?) to get an exist visa to the planet itself. Admin, advocate and social class may all help, so I believe that the part will be able to get to the planet and follow up on the leads they discovered early on.

As a test, I am seeing if I can embed a PDF in this post. I tend to overdo setting things up that never get used, but as it is what I do for fun, it is all good. I've not detailed the startown much beyond a few locations I am snagging from the BITS Rendezvous book, just trying to establish broad impressions of various areas. The whole MOAN (Map Only As Needed) principle. Except that I really enjoy mapping More Than I Will Ever Use :)

Traveller Tracker Ideas

I do believe I am going to start yet again, but this time possibly via a self-hosting web API. The advantage of this, assuming I actually follow through, is that using the latest .Net stuff it should run on Windows, Linux and Macs. And if I can get it down to a simple installer, bypasses a bunch of issues with the UWP. It also means all the XAML (UI framework) goes away and I go full web. Which I really need to learn.

I've not fully decided - the option for just a more generic Windows program is also still there and would be easier for me in some ways. Especially if I can figure an installer.

And there is still the "really clean up the mess I've made" in the existing program. Get a better UI, fix the cargo process which tried to stuff 3 different versions into a single thing with far too many checks.  I think a unified cargo generator backend makes more sense, and perhaps I really should start with that. Of course, that still requires a UWP, but I may start with simply "enter the UWP here" and generate the cargo from that.

So many decisions. And so little time. I prefer spending my time prepping and actually playing Traveller finally after a long break. But as previously mentioned, my son will be off to college in a few months, meaning I will probably have too much time on my hands again to go with that whole empty nest thing.

Pretty sure very few people read this blog except for the ones I share on G+ (which will be going away soon - I'll probably have to craft a post to share indicating that I will still be adding posts here and submitting stuff to COTI, but that will be about it as I do not use Facebook, and I really don't need to try & join up with one of the far too many other little hosting sites that some people are moving to.)

And I may even open up the Trello board and get real feedback from users - meaning I need to have something that they can actually install & use w/o too much difficulty. *sigh*

Viota - Startown of D'Arlee

D'Alee supports both a high port and ground facilities. D'Arlee Down shares some space with the Naval port for some common facilities, particular craft that are not pure Naval vessels such as the soon to be transferred lab ship.  D'Arlee down covers about 300 square kilometers on the outskirts of Viota, which has, over the last hundred or so years, become more of a traditional startown than the original city planners may have wanted.

Baor River bisects Viota into two main sections nicknamed Startown West and Startown East. Across the river, in Startown West, lies the main warehouse district. This area contains hundreds of warehouses ranging from a bare roof on metal trusses to fortified cargo depots. South of this, the business district contains brokers and businesses supporting the port as well as the Naval port. Brokers, bars, Naval recruitment centers and other professional facilities form the core of this section. As you head south and west, the businesses become less savory, and the traders and brokers may trade in things best unmentioned. This section of town, nicknamed the Skids. has bars of loose morals and rumors of criminal elements are not far from the truth. The police and Navy military patrols occasionally pass through, but this is a favorite haunt of Naval personnel as well as trader crews on leave when on D'Arlee.

Startown West, as you move out from the warehouse district, has the better quality suppliers and more uptown offices. This is the area the D'Alee government maintains business dealings with the ports, and police are more visible. Moving further west, as you approach Lake Kian and its estates, houses and businesses are farther apart and more luxurious. Most residences are fenced, and some may have military grade defenses in place according to rumors.

Viota has approximately 150,000 residents in the city and the neighboring suburbs.

I used the RPG City Map generator to create the city, then Google Draw to add text and the ports. The city generator also lets you save the image into smaller, more detailed images. So while the main image is 3200 pixels, I also exported 16 (4x4) images also at that resolution.  So I can plans the mean streets of Viota depending on what the players end up doing.  I see gun fights as a possibility, although with a law level of 8, not sure how that will actually happen!

Game Prep after getting slighty off the rails

As the game went a bit sideways, but not nearly as bad as it could have, I need to prep for the next session.  As they have uncovered the majority of the plotting going on, managed to get some contacts over on D'Arlee for the dark web of skill jackers, I probably need to expand out that criminal element a bit.

I did use the characters from the Moon Toad book as the ship crew, and printed up my cheat sheet with images and a brief blurb on the front, and skills and notes on the back. I may even cut it up - it is basically a 2 column, 3 row sheet that has each NPC on an index card sized piece. That way, when playing, I could just have that particular card in front of me to let the players know who I am at that moment (as I cannot fake accents or anything).

While normally I would add that image here, I think it is too much of that book so I won't do that, I'll have to have another image as blog posts with pictures tend to do better :)

Anyway, for the next session, I've got the ship and crew prepped for the journey - they may be recurring or not, but for the moment they are just transportation to D'Arlee. For D'Arlee itself I need to expand it out a bit, possibly generate the seedy side of town if they are going to pursue the leads they got on Q'antar, and also prep the Navy hand-off of the lab ship, along with all the responsibilities that they will also have.

One of the issues with this group is that they are mostly D&D players, or other games where they get better stats and abilities as they play. Traveller does not work that way, and so a couple seem a bit disheartened by not being able to become super characters. Hopefully we can figure it out - they are getting an unarmed ship, so perhaps a small boarding action at some point to indicate perhaps arming the ship would be a good idea. And paying the crew will be important, although the Navy does have a job for them on the longer-term game play that involves our Barbarian player whose blood is full of nanites. I just don't want it to boil down to accountants in space!

I'll probably detail out some locations and the criminal part in the next day or so as they may get there Monday depending on how we finish up on Q'antar. As I've also got the BITS 101 Rendezvous, I can certainly incorporate some of those. I knew my Traveller hoarding could pay off!

D'Arlee from a sunny orbit (or perhaps from all the GPS image sats):

Session 1: Discoveries

We pick up our Travellers soon after they get picked up by the Katydid. The flight back had our heroes with guns on the kidnappers, finally getting some of the details of what went happened.

I attempted to play the NPCs as well as I could, using some notes from the COTI group.  So while there were no monologues, at least there was some conversation. They spilled the beans as much as they could, although they are only a small part of the entire kidnapping chain. Had to do some adlibbing as I had some vague notions of the larger plot, but decided to wait to see how things unfolded during play. Plans and players, we all know that drill.

They are met at the port by the sheriff / mayor and the port crew. Having some lockable rooms in the lounge module, they march the prisoners there. Sayelle lets it be known that the gentleman waiting near the air raft is often a customer, and is more in charge of the process than they are. They are simply hired muscle.  The sheriff goes down to talk with the gentleman, and as she turns to walk back inside, he makes a run for it in his air raft. While the sheriff tries a quick draw shot and misses, Max manages to take well enough aim to hit the air raft, disabling one of the grav engines. The air bag explodes and pins Lenard briefly to the vehicle.

Another conversation occurs, and some contacts on D'Arlee are given. The doctor knocks Lenard out and they take the air raft to his spread, some 100km south of the port. There, after some exploration, they discover the Scout ship in the hangar, and the 4 cells in the basement. They also find the lab were he was experimenting with the creeper venom, which is also why he needed the occasional guinea pig. That probably would have been Osrum's fate. That entire scene was also adlibbed - the plan was for Lenard to get away and become some sort of potential recurring bad guy.  They also find a computer and take it back to the port.

With no one having any computer skills, the force Lenard to open the system up, and decrypt the drives. They find some mention of the League of Planets, and some sort of criminal group that is kidnapping Imperial citizens as an indentured labor class. The sheriff is quite willing to take the Scout ship, and she is also the judge, can easily sentence the bad guys. Although her long term plan is to get the Imperial authorities involved as they have no ready penal system. For a planet of 10 people it has never been needed.

I believe everyone had a pretty good time, although we were short a few people due to illness. It looks like there will be 5 players in total.

I've also got Max's background, which is well done and gives me some potential hooks.

Next week we'll probably manage the jump to D'Arlee on the A2L trader which is about to make landing, and then they can go over the fancy lab ship and be greeted by the Navy crew turning over the ship, along with a request that will pay salaries and supplies for a bit. Assuming that they take the offer, which is just that: an offer to underwrite about 4-8weeks of their time and effort. Plus, it will help Osrum explore more of Planet Bob, otherwise known as Pax Stellar.

Below is a test for an NPC card with some hints to how to play her. Comes from the Flatlined Mongoose adventure, which was translated to the D'Arlee Quadrant.

Game Prep part II

As I left the luxury lab ship one jump away, after the Travellers deal with the events of Q'antar, they will need transportation. As we have a lot of characters, Travis' Scout ship the Katydid would not suffice for that jump. I'll go with it would overload the life support system (there are about 6 players and at least 1 NPC to make the trip. Plus Travis, so 8 people on a 4 person ship would be both crowded and strain the life support).

Looking through my existing resources, I have several ships that could take them, but none that would have any real reason to be at the back-end of nowhere planet. No reason for a passenger liner to be dropping by a planet with a dozen people living on it. Not much in the way of a bulk hauler, and the ones I have don't have much in the way of accommodation. Checking out a couple of the ships I used previously as Scout ships, none would support that number of people.

I dug back a bit more - I do have more than just those 0-Hr maps and minis. And I do like Classic Traveller.  And then I remembered I bought the Moon Toad Publishing book, the A2L Trader. Basically larger versions of the Marava class trader. That book, and others I have bought from them, are most excellent as well. Well laid out, sharp, usable deck plans (unlike the horrible isometric Mongoose plans which you just can't use and basically are a waste of paper. At least in my opinion).  So the Dione Class A2Lm Far Trader is perfect: a 300 ton trader with jump 2 and space for 6-12 passengers. And, I am working in Antares Ship Builders and Trade Speculators: this ship will be one of the dozens of ship owners who work with ASB&TS for the brokerage system. Bringing in more of my background to fit into this sandbox. Plus I have a mini of a Marava class ship that also fits on the printed starport map.  Yay for visuals!

So without further ado, below is a small screen shot of the handout. Printed on tablet sized paper it almost fits 15mm minis. The back contains the ship stats. I'll also borrow all the characters in the book for the ship crew. As it has a Vargr engineer and there are 2 players with Vargr characters, that could be fun.

Game prep for Traveller 2019

As several of my players want to continue the game as mentioned in several earlier posts (hey, I'm happy they liked it enough to want to play again. Or else they just don't want to DM a game...I'll stick with the optimistic view) I've been working on the game.  I like real things - maps, minis, coins. They help to give a sense of where things are, how they relate, and sometimes can help with immersion.

So I printed up a corrected map of the D'Arlee Quadrant, as well as the port at Q'antar (remember this was the 80s and apostrophes were everywhere in SF). Interestingly, the map prints out about to scale with the Scout ship. I suppose I should not have added that image of a Scout ship now. I will have to make a list of things I need to bring to sessions - maps, cardboard heroes (got most of the Steve Jackson things on CD, and I have cardstock, so I've been printing things up), dice, any ship minis that may get used.

And - Merry Christmas everyone. I hope everyone has a joyous time.

D'Arlee Map, revisited

After I tried the TravellerMap Border tool, I realized my maps was a bit off. And I found that the XML metadata gives you a lot more options. So I switched to XML, used the revised border as generated then tweaked a bit to get outside the display area, and voila! It even looks more interesting!

Traveller Map API, Trade Routes

Still cannot overlap routes, but switching from the MSEC format to the XML format for the metadata gives me more options. I can have dashed routes (no idea why it was dashed - I think when I did this originally I was just going for interesting looking!), custom allegiance codes, regions, more fun stuff.

I really need to get back to my ship tracking program, probably start over yet again and not go the UWP route. Go with a simpler installer maybe. And really clean up the cargo stuff: I was integrating 3 different systems and it did not come together well. After doing all that, I think a better schema can be made that incorporates all three systems into a single table.

Basically, a cargo is only a few core things:

1. Minimum volume (dTons)
2. Maximum volume
3. What is it? In Classic and Mongoose, this matters. T5 seems to gloss over it and everything is the same price from the same system for the same volume. Hate that....
4. Base purchase price
5. D66 roll (Classic and I think Mongoose, but I've not paid enough attention to Mongoose). This would allow for rolls on the cargo table to only be those specified in the rules. 

For the ship, the above is part of the ship's cargo, which would have:

1. cargo ID
2. cargo code
3. lot size (dTons)
4. purchase date
5. purchase system
6. purchase price
7. sell date
8. sell system
9. sell price

Tricky part is the cargo code. I do have a masochistic preference for the BITS cargo codes as there is a lot of room for adventure there. T5 has its own way of doing things, so the cargo code is based on the version played. T5's code is actually fairly easy to calculate, it is just boring. So I may have both the T5 code and the BITS code. So a cargo listing could look something like:

Cargo	dTons	Purchase World	Purchase Price	Purchase Date	Cargo Code	Selling World	Selling Price	Selling Date
Gems	5	D'Arlee	100000	110-1105	C-Ri Cr100000 3225683-42244A41-[100-160-320-70]-(0)

Which, if you read the code, may indicate that for some reason or another this is actually a hazardous cargo. Hope your steward / cargo master knows the codes (digression: there was an interesting conversation about cargo management on COTI, and if it should be a new skill. I prefer the steward skill to cover that rather than yet another, pretty specialized skill).

Anyways, my revised trade map:

Side Trip - Fantasy World

Way back in college I also played The Fantasy Trip. Steve Jackson Games had a Kickstarter and raised quite a bit to bring it back now that he has the rights again. I went overboard (darn KS addiction) and got the I Want It All (and then added more...)

So I also dug up my old college maps - I actually made an atlas based on all the miniatures I had bought over the years (and why I thought having ALL the skeletons was a good idea I cannot recall). I built this atlas with hand-drawn maps (I really loved colored pencils apparently) and taped them together into a book of about 10 maps or so. Each region was specific to a race primarily, with a bit of overlap.

Another recent Kickstarter is a "drop-in" resource. The Woodfall Kickstarter presents a witch town in a fen, along with inhabitants, surrounding region, and a lot of fun things. So I found a place to plug it in, next to the Terror Lands which is a giant marsh.

My plan is next year to run a fantasy game using those rules, and using the old maps and things. I do have a major city that the adventurers will start in, and I also have the Complete Ankh-Morpork City Guide, which came with a HUGE map (and was on sale for $5. The map alone is worth that).  So my city has an unerring similarity to Ankh-Morpork as well.

As mentioned in a previous post on Pax Stellar being based on another art book - I am finally, after almost 40 years, figuring out how to integrate all the stuff I've accumulated over the years into something I hope will be fun for other people.

So, End City is on a river, so that works for me as well. And I've rumors about Stuboon's lost treasure (I even have a history of the world and its own gods. At the time I was a college student, could not afford what I could find, so making it up was both entertaining and cheap. Stuboon thought a shortcut would give him a marketing edge from the north lands to End City. As witness the 3 stands, it did not work out well after all).

D'Arlee Trade Routes

My old hand-drawn map on photocopied subsector copies, then taped together to form a quadrant and plotted trade routes.  I do miss those physical crafty days, now we do everything on the computer. Looks better in some ways, but I feel we're sort of losing the ability to make our own universes and worlds. And I really like hand-drawn images more for some reason. While I suppose there is a surplus of environments, worlds and scenarios on the various game platforms such as DriveThru RPG, I don't know that people make up their own as much. For me, that was most of the fun.  Especially in the years when I was not actually playing, but playing at: making up worlds, corporations, characters, and maps galore.

But I digress.  My map had dozens of trade routes that, if doing a financial analysis, probably make no sense whatsoever. Those days we did not care as much, and the group I am with now probably does not either. So we'll just go with something that looks good and may not make much sense.

I will have a lot of time tomorrow as well (yay snow days!) so I may pull out the GURPS Far Trader book, work up all the GDP stuff as well, and then see about making a more realistic trade map.

I also found that, as great as it is, TravellerMap does not handle routes going to the same places well...my hand drawn map has several routes that parallel and overlap each other. All in different colors - I suppose I was trying to use all the colors in that colored pencil set! There are several other routes not shown. Plus I discovered missing worlds as well.

Antares company profile

Per the BITS 101 Corporations / Corporate profile:

Antares Ship Builders and Trade Speculators
D'Arlee/0401 D'Arlee Quadrant
Im-4424-35*Trans6 Con3 Man1*3464-35

And from a WIP PDF (which my players will never read but I'm stuck at home in the snow. And I like doing this for fun!)

(from the Antares Ship Builders and Trade Speculators Employee manual, 1104-001 revision)

Welcome!

Welcome to Antares Ship Builders and Trade Speculators! You are part of the extended Wescott family. We are a family-owned business established in 540 by Broderick Wescott, and has been in the family since it was a single small merchant vessel, the Fair Wren. Since then, the company has grown to its current state of over 18,000 employees and dozens of vessels plying the space lanes. You are now a part of this proud history.

History

Starting with that single ship, Broderick went from a scrappy free merchant to creating the start of a trading empire, Antares Trade Speculators.  Using brokers on various systems, Broderick was able to procure better cargos than his competitors, as well as establishing standardized routes with the assistance of local governments to ensure timely delivery of goods and mail. To help off-set the immense costs of purchasing ships, he started the Antares Shipyards on D’Arlee in 572 by the purchase of a small ship building firm. This small ship yard went from producing perhaps 5 ships a year to more than 20 ships. Not all went back into the business, and as a result, we were renamed to Antares Ship Builders and Trade Speculators.

Over the years, Antares built itself recognition as a stable, dependable partner for world governments and private organizations. With its expanding fleet of small merchant ships, Antares covered areas that larger shipping companies wrote off as too small for a profit. We not only deal with world governments and interstellar corporations, but we also specialize in the handling of the personal and small local companies. We were fair trade before fair trade was born.

Antares gained Imperial recognition in 761, three years after D’Arlee joined the Imperium. At that time, in order to expand into Imperial trading relationships, the Imperial family has a 3% stake in Antares. See Appendix 3 for the current stock ownership. With the growth of the Imperium, Antares faced larger challenges are larger corporations moved into our traditional routes. Additionally, other ship building corporations, with vastly larger resources, moved in. Antares in the intervening 300 years was slowly reduced in size from its peak of more than 50,000 employees and 100+ ships. Our mission also changed to reflect the changing of the times. Rather than building ships and hiring crew for 100% of our trading needs, we started the owner-operators initiative. In 1002, we started chartering ship owners for a portion of their profits. We invested in people. We now support dozens of owner-operators in addition to our existing fleet.

Hiring Practices

Antares hires at current Imperial standard rates for the various positions required. Certification levels can boost the base pay. Additionally, ship owners working for Antares gain a 10% discount on yearly maintenance at any appropriate Antares shipyard (see Appendix 2 for current ship yard locations and capacity). Owners are given access to Antares brokers (see Appendix 2A for current broker listings) for a reduced fee.

Owners agree to a 5% net profit dividend to be payed to Antares in exchange for these benefits.

Antares Ship Builders and Trade Speculators

My old mega-corporation wannabe from college.  Top image was done via GIMP (and I am so slow with that, but thought I'd see if I could use Bezier curves to make something. Did half, then duplicated and flipped that layer. Only took 6-7 tries to get it to close enough!). The original is pen and colored pencils. While the tools have certainly changed, my Traveller introduction was in the old line drawing days. Those types of drawings evoke Traveller to me. Ian Stead, although using computer graphics still manages to maintain what I consider the feel of classic Traveller.

I have an entire huge org chart which, after being in the real world and working for real companies, will be adjusted. There were 40-45 little boxes, and for some reason I had marketing under logistics and in charge of contractors. I think I did this after getting Book 6, Scouts, with its org chart.

I could not find a font that was too close to my hand-drawn version, but that one is close enough.

Next post - details on this 20,000+ employer in the D'Arlee Quadrant.  I'll break out the BITS 101 Corporations book and get a detailed corporate profile completed. This will probably be today or perhaps tomorrow - the snow did arrive, and is still arriving. And looks to be arriving through tomorrow. So I have a sort of 3 day weekend (I've a couple of phone interviews with applicants but I can do that from home).

Iac

Iac as rolled up 30+ years ago: A551301-B.  Not sure how we get a class A port on a world with a population of about 3000 people. So...this is now the family retreat for the family that owns Antares Shipping and Trade Speculators, a large corporation in the D'Arlee Quadrant.  I have several pages of notes on them and even have some logos. I had a lot more time to create game stuff in college than I recall!

So, in the intervening years, and reading on various Traveller forums, I am going with the 3,000 is just the full-time residents. There are over 10,000 SPA employees at the starport, as well as almost that many in various manufacturing and other support services to the port. There is a high port as well.

The port is entirely Imperium owned and operated, and is a small city unto itself. As I rolled up a couple of NPCs using the JTAS 19, "Skyport Authority" by the wonderful John M. Ford, I also envision this career can send characters all over. So most of the port employees are mostly transient, performing their term or terms and then moving on.

The family (hmm, no notes on the name, I shall have to get some of that taken care of in a post where I detail the conglomerate) basically owns the planet, and has several large estates. A large staff is also part of the population. Can't have upper level families doing their own laundry now!

So perhaps if the snow actually comes down (threats of snowmagedden so far have not materialized, but I may wake up tomorrow in a foot of snow), I'll dig up those notes. I think I can make that work in the current game I am playing as well.

As I do not expect my players to actually stop at the planet, this is probably enough of a description to go on. Their ship does have wilderness refueling and refining capacity, so I believe they will just dip into one of the two gas giants for a few days to refuel.

Just realized I probably should indicate that this is a F6 V star, the main world is in orbit 4, and there are small stations and stuff all over. With a tech level of B, there is probably a fair amount of interstellar traffic. Heck - they probably import the hydrogen from the gas giants or belts (two of each). Yeah - I can stick a few of those 0-Hr stations in various places in case they want to visit those. I'll stick a few on all the gas giants so that they can either wilderness refuel or buy fuel and get off the ship for a bit of a stretch.