Solo Session 0.35: With the Space Patrol

Just a note: I've not established dates just yet. I'll probably start our intrepid reporter in 1106 or so, and I am probably going to risk 1 more term, so this particular report would be probably around 1100 or so. I'll figure it out later. So the date as posted may not entirely match up but it sounded good. This is a report from his term when he was exploring the sector, or at least the Quadrant. Getting paid to visit stange new worlds and not kill people.


Please note that I am using the Stellar Games Space Patrol and Pirates, so references are made to those books. I've yet to get a player to generate a character with those books, but I am hoping...in the meantime, they are good reads and I think a good addition to anyone's science fiction RPG. The Opis class trader is an A2 Far Trader described in Moon Toad's Shipbook: A2L Trader. Also well worth it.


343-1100, Kolha, League of Independent Planets (0713 E783787-1)  This system is on the RImward of the League, the 5th planet of a bright F8 star. Not much to recommend for the casual tourist, yet Antares maintains a regular cargo run to this system. The week my ship, the Road Runner, came out of jump, we were met by the League's Space Patrol. A Dragon class Patrol Corvette more than twice the size of our 300 ton A2 OPis class Far Trader. They hailed us and within hours had matched our orbit. The Wyvern sent across two patrol men, Chief Investigator Sergeant Avril Hunter, and Investigator Corporal  Yen-She Lucas. They managed a fast yet surprisingly thorough cargo inspection first via an actual review of the cargo. Having two cargo bays, they did split their efforts. I followed and spoke with Sergeant Hunter as to why to Patrol is here, and what they would be looking for.

"Well, Kohla's population is basically barely out of the Stone Age. They have no defenses against any interstellar group. The League annexed the planet almost 50 years ago for a variety of reasons. They have some good resources in terms of fresh foods, and a surprisingly artistic crafting that can fetch some pretty good prices. Trading here is via goods and bartering. But before it was a member of the League, we had pirates based out of here on one of the moons of Kolha-1. They were a constant threat to some of our systems. The Imperials seem to want to ignore them, and have no Naval bases nearby anyway. In fact, some think that..." 

And here she quit talking, and concentrated on using her scanner to match inventory and packing info to the ship's cargo listing. She was quiet after that, seeming more aware of the AVBot hovering over my shoulder. 

She and Corporal Lucas then met up with Artic Pezal, our head steward and cargo master. He confirmed that one of the cargo containers was for Kohla, full of stainless steel farming implements. These were to be traded for furs, meats and exotic food stuffs, most going to Xabic two jumps farther on our journey. The natives of Kohla were unable to manufacture such farming implements themselves, and they were highly prized there. We went back to the cargo bay where that pod was stored. It was adjacent to the port cargo lock, and due to the other containers, we could not peer inside it. A few communiques between the Sergeant and Major Lupin, and it was decided that the Wyvern's ships boat would follow us down to the surface. Coming from my Imperial background, this did seem extreme but was, according to Artic, fairly standard practice. The fringe systems such as Kohla are not as safe as things are deeper in the Imperium. According to Artic:

"There's all sorts out here. The League is hard-pressed at times to keep things right. Heck, around here you never see any Navy ships we're so far out. There are bunches of them Scout bases, but they just look at the stars and map all these places. Seems like an easy job if you ask me!"

Almost four hours later, we are parked on packed dirt and rock, the ship's boat a few meters away with four well armed Marshalls of the Patrol wandering in what I would have thought were random paths. Sergeant Hunter disabused me of that pretty quickly.

"You may think it is random, but notice that there are always two others always in sight, and they cover a lot of ground. Marshalls are a different breed it seems sometimes. That's Beta Team Leader Danner Tesauro. Plays a mean game of cards. But see how he watches over his guys, as well as the natives coming up now? Everything under control and ready for anything."

With the aid of the overhead cargo system, we managed to get the cargo carrier positioned and opened. The Patrol Investigators watched as Artic opened the doors, and the natives, normal humans that looked straight out of a holomovie wearing furs and rough cloth, brought in carts of fresh furs, meats and sacked plants of some sort. Artic and the chief bartered for more than an hour while boxes of pitchforks, spades, shovels, scythes and things I did not recognize were opened, inspected, and transferred to the carts as the furs and foods moved to now empty cargo container. 
The Space Patrol still patrolled around the perimeter as the inspectors basically watched the proceedings. I did manage to talk with Corporal Lucas, a sometimes nervous appearing woman who seemed pretty young.

"Yeah, this croaky planet actually has this plant that can be used for all sorts of things. One of those botanical wonderplants apparently. Its use is pretty strictly monitored as it can be used as a fast poison, so we do these random checks. The Antares group has never given us grief but you guys aren't the only traders coming through here, and some guys can be pretty croaky. So we drop by a lot, this is part of our patrol. Ready to get back to base though - sometimes those rations can get pretty boring. Wonder if we can trade for some fresh food?" 

And then she wandered off to the Sergeant, apparently to ask about possibly getting some fresh rations. 

Bargaining completed, the Road Runner's engineers had already set up the wilderness refueling system. The dense atmosphere was also starting to fatigue everyone other than the natives. We'd be staying on planet the next few days, but the Patrol was ready to leave. We said our good byes and the ship's boat launched back to the Wyvern and to the rest of her patrol.

This is Malik Castillion, reporting from Kohla in the League of Independent Planets. 

Dragon Class Patrol Corvette, Space Patrol

x

Solo Play - Session 0.3: 3rd term

Malik took the plunge and managed to survive with an 8 on the survival roll. So no real close escapes. Choosing the Journalist table, Malik picks up Sensors-1 to help him correlate the data his AVBot picks up to make a more cohesive and compelling story. And apparently the Evening Witness has a lot of faith in Malik: he goes on a tour of the sector and gains 3 contacts (rolled a 6 for a D3). During this tour is his promoted again, which for journalists carries no additional tittles or skills. He is a senior staff writer now, and perhaps gets noticed by the TAS or other news agencies.

Four years is a pretty long time, and I'll have to figure out contacts. If it is supposed to be a tour of the subsector, starting at Yllom, and assuming generally jump 1 with the occasional jump 2, his route would be: Yllom to Finnagin's World, then D'Arlee the quadrant capital. Iac, Dura, Jorella, Unbeme, Kimitri in which he becomes an embedded reporter for the Antares Ship Builders and Trade Speculators (see ASB&TS Profile, a source of at least one of the contacts), Alphoma, Nix, Subra, Xant, Yzom, Mons Gig, Rastraz, Zo, Johon, Yonder, Zalmer (which is an independent planet outside of any stellar government). Then to Crimlon (an asteroid belt), to Kohla, a system controlled by the League of Independent Planets. Back to Imperial space with Urint, Xabic, Tempor. Quint is another independent system, then on to Oheit, Croin, Exidtra, Jump, the fabled Lost World (and now to come up with a reason it is a lost world and fabled). Kiv to Lormia, Acept, Hooke, Jarbo, Zonin, Mount. The red zoned world of Des Plades is next, then Stant, Yontin, Murn, Delta (bypassing the red zoned system of Epsilon), Finnigin's Gamma. At this point Malik leaves the Antares shipping company's various traders and returns home to Yllom on an A2 free trader that was heading that way. Assuming he does a jump every 2 weeks, that is a 90 week journey. So, there will be systems he stays at for more than a week, sometimes less. The round trip ends up taking most of the term, with the last few months doing additional editing and broadcasting back on Yllom's Evening Witness.

His four year journey becomes a book (both print, holographic novel as well as a series of videos that are edited into a composite story). Malik at the end of this term is 30, and must decide to continue on his career, or has the 4 year tour of the sector given him wanderlust?

I think the next post may be one of the stories he covered: I have both the Pirate and Space Patrol supplements from Stellar Games, and it would be interesting to see them in a bit of action. It may help flesh things out if I can continue the previous Traveller game. Plus, it is fun!

At this point, we have:

699A96 Journalist, Senior Staff Writer (rank 3), 3 terms, age 30

Art (Writing 1), Carouse 0, Deception 0, Drive 0 (flyer 0/background), Language 0 (background), Streetwise 0 (background), Persuade 0, Steward 0, Electronics (Comm-1, Sensors-1), Investigate 1. 

3 Contacts, 1 political enemy.

Solo Play - Session 0.2: Malik's 2nd term

Malik goes into his 2nd term. Apparently having a political enemy made survival just that much more difficult: rolled a 6 and the roll is 7+. Fortunately with his education at 9, Malik gets +1 so squeaked by. There were some close calls this term! Rolling on events, it is a life event. Sadly, one of the close calls was getting mugged and losing one of his benefit rolls (it was either that or go to prison. With the barely surviving roll. the mugging works out well. He does advance from a freelance writer to a staff writer, but now on one of the global papers, the Evening Witness. This gains him the investigate 1 skill. He also gained +1 DEX from the personal development table.

Now 26, Malik has to consider staying in the more death-defying career he has chosen or switching careers. Survival is just better than 50/50, a fact I had not fully realized until I had to roll it again!

Poking around the internet, found what could be a good picture from Daegonn, Field Reporter. He has his commcorder which can do live broadcasts. I may have to see if I can work up some sort of stats for that, but I can see a small grav unit, rudimentary AI to keep the thing near Malik, and all sorts of audio/video recording and broadcasting capabilities.



Makhidkarun AVBot Model 1200F
A small, dome/disk robot that has a grav unit and hydrogen fuel cells. It has a linear computer processing system with standard storage. It includes telescopic, light intensifying, passive and active IR as well as enhanced audio. And of course the holorecorder and radio for live, in the spot broadcasts.

Unfortunately, using Book 8 (which I never actually used, but I do have the CD!) I can't make this work the way I want to. The smallest hydrogen cell is 20 liters and 20 kg. And of course the computer aspects are seriously dated. I don't have any other robot books, and ultimately I suppose it really does not matter. I'd try in Striker but that is definitely aimed more at vehicles.

I will steal part of the URP (Universal Robot Profile) for the model number:

22F0F
Chassis Size 1 - 10 liters (about the size of an infant torso. Interesting size comparison)
Configuration 2 - half dome/disk shaped
Power Plant 0 - small fuel cell, enough for (making this up now) 12 hours without a recharge
Batteries 0 - no batteries (the only started at TL13 and I wanted this to be about a TL10 to be maintainable on Yllom without having to go to the port
Locomotion F - grav.

Trying to do this using T5 rules (and this is the 1st time looking at that section honestly):
20 liters.
Electronic brain.  1 unit
Constant vision with telescopic enhancements.
Constant audio for hearing.
Sealed body (so good for a variety of atmospheres, or even lack of one)
Zero-G baseplate, 4 units (liters)
Radio transceiver and ballistic position tracker.
Networked datalink
A weekly power cell take 12 units, I assume are liters, so more than half of this thing is power cell.
That puts us at 17 liters, the remaining 3 liters are the cameras, holdrecorders, and all that.

Regardless of how it gets designed. it is pretty darn expensive. So this is not the personal property of Malik, but the news group the Evening Witness.

Solo play v1.16 - Yllom's culture

Yllom is a world on the edge of Imperial space, a couple of parsecs out from the League of Independent Planets. It has no real Imperial presence other than the port. While the population if just over 9 billion people, there is little conflict. Some historians claim the early settlers were from a peaceful cult that worshipped flowers and the brotherhood of sophonts. Regardless of the origins, the water lily is considered a sacred plant, and most homes have water gardens. There are a significant variety of water lilies ranging in the entire spectrum of colors, and there is artwork on most buildings depicting the eponymous plant. In fact, the various councils each have their own water lily species and color as a representative of that council. It can be seen on official vehicles and quite often lapel pins. Most outsiders tend to think it is a bit excessive, yet colorful and benign at least.

There are 61 councils governing the planet and system (each with its own unique water lily design). While there is a fairly significant law level, the police and military forces are smaller than expected for a population of this size. And they appear to be unfailingly polite even when writing out a ticket. Do not let that lull visitors into a false sense of security, however. They do enforce their local laws with a velvet fist. In fact, the planetary police have a velvet water lily as their logo.

The primary language spoken is Galanglic, although there are a few local dialects that off-worlders may have a difficult time parsing. The population is mostly standard human, but there are several pods of uplifted Dolphins that live and work in the warm world ocean water.

Yllom itself has a bare 2 degree tilt, and seems to have basically a warm summer season all year round. The equatorial region does get warmer than most people enjoy, which may also explain why it also has the most underwater cities. There is one significant continent where more than 3 billion people live in four large cities, including one arcology that houses more than 5 million residents. There are several large islands and hundreds of smaller islands scattered over the planet. Most available surface area is farmed, but most cities also have significant vertical farms that produce almost half of the plant-based foods consumed on the planet. There is also a large variety of fish and water animals that are the primary basis of protein for the population. Strict laws govern the fishing to prevent over-fishing. Yllom has a healthy marine life despite the high population due to the Maine Council's strict enforcement of marine law.

There are rumors of pirate bases operating out of some of the smaller islands. Yllom does have a small squadron of system defense boats based both at the port and a small station at Yllom's third moon with an Argos class station. There is a large contingent of Imperial Inspectors at the port to police goods coming out of the League as well as goods going into the league. There are some cargoes that are proscribed for import or export, and the Imperium tries to keep a close eye on that. The occasional Space Patrol frigate from the League also shows up, tracking down pirates that live on the fringe between Imperial space and the League, or tracking illicit cargo. There have been known cases of sophont trafficking passing through the port, usually via cold berths.

Yllom does a fair amount of trade both with the Imperium and the League. The large high port transfers significant cargoes between worlds and is used as one of the primary importer/exporter to and from the League and the Imperium. While most of the trade is above board, there are restrictions from both the Imperium and the League of Independent planets.

The people are nice, and seem quite surprised about violence. Their entertainment seems to truly revolve around the sacred water lily for the most part. But there are sports, generally non-competitive, as well as adventuresome trips to the deep trenches or the 3 small mountains that have very limited access to keep the few wilderness areas pristine. There is a 3 year waiting period currently for climbing Mt. Shiguou.

Families tend to follow the standard nuclear option, with 2 parents. Families tend to be large as well, with 4 or more children not uncommon. There are a few variants, primarily the line marriage which is more a legal construct than the traditional family. The 9 billion population is also including the population of several large moon bases. With three moons, there is plenty of lunar real estate. The largest moon base, the Living City of S'Kalu on Yllom's second moon, boasts of more than 120 million inhabitants.

Solo Session 0.15 - Yllom

Came up with some images for Yllom. I'll be writing a fuller detailed write up this weekend, as well as seeing about Malik's family. Is he from a nuclear family, extended family, line marriage a al Heinlein? I know I saw some random rolls for that. Maybe is the only child or one of a dozen.

For those who keep up, I do get pretty carried away doing world write-ups.

Yllom is actually 88% water according to the stats when generating this map - I always do +/-5% on hydrospheres. Pretty sure that is sort of standard.



I'll have to put the hexes on this and do a bit of creative ISS stuff. One of these days I may have to come up with some sort of a template. Meanwhile, just winging it to see if anything sticks. As the Scouts are scattered, and it may take years for communication, I am going with there may be a LOT of versions as HQ keeps changing things but it takes a while for the new format to make it to the frontiers!

Solo Play - Session 0.1

I only got part way through the character generation. I got side tracked to deciding if I want to go Classic, Cepheus or Mongoose for character generation. So I had to re-read a bit. Decided T5 was still out of the question until I get T5.10. Plus the mechanics don't mesh with how I want to play.

Then side tracked by OTU vs MTU. As per a couple posts back, I did decide on MTU so I can flesh out the D'Arlee Quadrant a bit more. Then had to poke around to find an origin planet. Then I found that one of the Windows updates killed my Heaven & Earth software. Played a bit with the settings and now it is working using compatibility mode for XP version 3 or something.

Going with Mongoose but allowed for 1 extra roll to replace a bad roll. Cepheus uses 3 dice and pick the 2 highest. I think that makes for too much above average, although I know some players like that sort of thing. Heck, even in the fantasy games I like normal stats. But probably because I usually end up playing someone not too far gone from me. Guess I just like to see how I would do with strange circumstances.

So, my original rolls were 699396, then rolled a 10. So intelligence went from a 3 (basically a moron) to a A, so a pretty bright guy. Going through the Mongoose careers I decided a journalist would be fun, particularly has he had bonuses for survival and promotion.

So, Malik Castillion was born on Yllom (A689997-A), a planet in the D'Arlee Quandrant just a couple of parsecs away from the League of Independent Planets. Yllom is an Imperial world, the third planet of a G8 V star. It has three moons. Gravity is a bit less than 1G standard at .7G. It does have a dense oxy/nitrogen atmosphere which is surprising considering its size. So we'll bump up the planetary density a bit and increase the G to .9 standard. It is also 90% water, so almost a water world. There are 9 billion people on this planet. Thee are large floating cities, underwater cities, a few archologies. There are also orbital habitats in addition, so a good chunk of the population may laive in orbit as well. It has an impersonal bureaucracy, and a relatively high law level of 7, meaning even shot guns are banned. t TL A, it is early interstellar, but being on a trade route and a recent upgraded type A starport, higher tech may be available.

Growing up, Malik learned his way around various space ports. He picked up streetwise, language and flyer at skill level 0 as background skills. He enjoys talking with people and seeing what they do. He decided to pursue a journalist career, and applied himself diligently to a local new organization, the Global News, a glorified webnews site. During his first term, he picked up the basic skills, including Art 0, starting with writing, Carouse, Deception, Drive, Persuade and Steward. He also broke the news on a corrupt politicin, Graham Allesandro. Malik now has an enemy, but gained Writing-1. He was also promoted at the bureau to be an official freelancer, gaining the Comms-1 skill reflecting his ability to write prose and get it posted in places some officials may not like.

And that was session 0.1. I'll have to go into a deep dive for Yllom this weekend, and generate some fun world maps and details. And come up with some interesting news media names.

Fantasy Trip Session 3 / Wrap Up

The planned 3 session game pretty much worked out to 3 sessions. We were down 1 player but the remaining four seemed to have a good time. We picked up from session 2, picking mushrooms in a cavern across a stream. Still needing two bags to be filled, our group traipses back along a path they did not take before. The gentle incline and fresh air blowing down led them to believe they may be heading for another exit to caves. And while that was true, (random beast roll) a bear was also in that cave just before the exit. The halfling fighter of course charges the bear, who had waddled up menacingly towards the group. Coming out of a somewhat narrow passage, the was limited room for the group to maneuver. However, Quincy managed to sidle behind the distracted ursine, and Barnard the woodsman followed Sir Rabbit to a direct attack on the lumbering bear. Harkin stepped to the side and cocked his bow, ready to shoot. Quincy poked the bear with his rapier, Sir Rabbit slashed with the sword, and Barnard managed to miss with his axe. The bear's thick fur deflected some of the damage, but he was now an enraged bear, bleeding from several smaller wounds. The bear took a swipe at Barnard but missed. Alas, Harkin also missed the bear but managed to hit Barnard. In the head. Took his ear clean off and set his helm askew. Friendly fire is a thing in the Fantasy trip.

Next round, there was little movement and more attacks. They did kill the bear with no additional harm to themselves. Harkin drunk down his healing potion (normally TFT healing potion does 1 point of healing, I opted for a d4 as I have this little jar that fits a d4, so they can use that. It seemed to go over well).  They carved off a haunch of the bear, and turned back into the caverns to search more. Taking the other bridge, they found a natural fissure in the ground that should have been an easy climb down to the lower levels. Sadly, Sir Rabbit somehow tripped but did manage his save roll. He did mention to be 'ware the loose rocks to the rest of the group. Barnard must have been feeling spry as he leapt deftly down the hole. 

Wandering the lower level, they come into the next cavern where yet another randomly rolled beast awaits. This time a lion. Apparently the lion and bear use different ways of entering this cave system. All we needed was a tiger to make the refrain come alive.  The battle of the lion was more dangerous. However, this time there was more space to maneuver about and set up clear shots without companions in the line of fire. Quincy sidled again to the rear of the lion while it was engaged with Sir Rabbit and Barnard. Harkin moved off to the side for a clear line of fire, as did Merk, our Goblin mage. Quincy managed to poke the lion, Sir Rabbit managed a good hit. Alas, the lion also managed a good hit on poor Barnard, doing 8 points of damage and knocking him down. He was unable to attack on his turn. The next round, there was no movement. Harkin shoots and actually hits but does minimal damage. Another rapier hit to the backside from Quincy, and a slash from Sir Rabbit. Then a fireball goes off on top of the lion. The smell of burnt fur and cooked meat pervade the cavern, along with a cloud of smoke. Merk has the most toothy grin as Harkin complains about him showing off. They eat some cooked lion, and search the cavern. They find a single expensive looking gem (very expensive once they take it to someone who can evaluate it) and travel on. The next cavern they find enough mushrooms to finish the job, and they trek back out they way they came in.

Our dwarves are waiting outside, and it is late afternoon now. Storm clouds are moving in, and they make the hour journey back to Hamor. Glori and Thunderanvil (Heimlich!) take the bags to their room, then take part of the ambrosia mushrooms, along with bear, and make the most wonderful meal. There were a few lumberjacks with a large load of timbers and peery ready for the morrow's journey to Edge City. The peery and Bear Gumbo flowed and a good time was had by all.

And that's where we left the group. Those who wanted got their books stamped with Quest Complete stamps. Should we play again, we can start with that group. Because the lumberjacks are not defined, if new or different players want to join in we can adjust the group. And besides, Edge City is a large place!

Solo Game?

While there is interest in playing Traveller with my group, there is just so much time. Currently I am only playing once a week. If I referee/GM, that's all I can do (me and my over-preparation!). When I play I am not quite as pressured (and have a whole lot less to carry to game night!)

While I am still thinking about playing an on-line game (thanks for offer, Baron Greystone. Still thinking about it...I am slow with making changes), another option does exist: solo gaming. While I've played at Traveller a bit, creating characters, ships, vehicles, worlds and all those fun solo-oriented sub-games, I've not actually played a solo game. I've bookmarked as a wish list item the solo rules but I can probably get a bit into it with even less formalization.

What I am thinking this will let me do is take a character from pre-enlistment through post-enlistment for "session 0". Then randomly pick a world (OTU or MTU) and go from there. If I go with my TU, it will allow me to expand a bit on that background. I think there is some value to that: I am truly hoping to pick back up that Traveller game. There is some potential between the League of Independent Planets and their Space Patrol. The ever-present possibility of pirates along the interface between those polities. And as I've stuck it somewhere at the edge of the Great Rift, a possibility of using all those resources as well (if all else, at least the deep space exploration part).

I've read of some games going round-robin with the character generation, each player basically designing the planet they are from or stationed at. They are generating not only their characters. but the universe around them. I think there are maybe a couple of players in my group that would really enjoy that but the rest, not so much. I think it would be a lot of fun and drive better player involvement in the game.

Being late afternoon on a Sunday, maybe I will roll up a character and get him through some service, and post the results. Then pick a world where he is off to do whatever it is he is off to do. And I need to decide which version of Traveller? Should I try a T5 character, or Classic, or Mongoose, or Cepheus (huh, forgot that one in my last post on comparing versions!)

Which also means I'll be doing some deep dives again into world backgrounds, maybe ships (probably stat out some of the way too many posters and PDFs I have that, while not Traveller, are really cool ships. Me and that KSA. Although oddly I don't have an open Kickstarter at the moment, although I may back this: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/loresmyth/remarkable-shops-and-their-wares/description

I do like non-game specific things like this: they help get me out of my ruts of imagination.

And now for a picture :)

Some Traveller Comparisons

There are quite a number of blog posts out there comparing the various versions of Traveller. This post won't be anywhere near as definitive and is really just my opinion.

I started Traveller in the early 80s, getting the Deluxe Boxed set with the maps of the Imperium and the Spinward Marches, Adventure 0, and the really more important than you would think Book 0. Got these in high school. I was a loner: I knew people who were playing D&D, and even invited me over, but I was not particularly outgoing. So I could barely figure out what Traveller even was as it was my first introduction to RPGs. But I read and enjoyed the books, tried rolling up characters, but that was the extent of it,

Cue college, where I also brought the box along and played more solo types of creation. Someone mentioned that a guy down the hall had those little black books, so I found him, and through him, the college gaming club. There I played all sorts of RPGs for a couple of years, but Traveller was my favorite. We would play at the university until we got kicked out of the building, then go to someone's apartment and play Traveller to 4am or later. Some of the best and most bizarre games as a result of sleep deprivation mixed in with college ingenuity. But I learned how to use those systems, and bought everything I could for Traveller and a few other games. I stopped getting stuff about the time of MegaTraveller, because....

Cue girls, then RPGs took a very backseat. I kept a lot of my gaming stuff but a lot got lost along the way. All the Traveller stuff I kept, and oddly the Metagaming Fantasy Trip stuff, other than the actual role playing book (which I either never had or lost. The old Advanced Melee and Advanced Wizard are in my big box of the re-release of that game, and still useful).

Cue divorce, and I found the Asheville gaming club. No Traveller, but older and well-versed gamers. I spent a year or so gaming with that club, then girls again...

Years later, my Traveller stuff still near my desk, I found COTI. And fell back in love with Traveller. I started software again for it (hence this blog), and played with making worlds, characters, and just fun stuff. The T5 Kickstarter was my first Kickstarter, and I was really excited by it. Even though I was still not playing Traveller, I was playing with Traveller. I had kept in touch with one of the guys from the gaming group - we both also liked movies and would see the occasional movie. I got started back into the gaming club, but only in the summer due to a conflict with Scouts. Years later, my son makes Eagle Scout (and I am so proud of him!) and my time is freed up, so back to gaming once a week! Woot!

Somewhere in the middle of that, Mongoose came out with their version of Traveller. I got a lot of the source books, and even plunked down $20 to be part of the early tester for the 2nd edition years later. So I also played with that system a bit which is pretty close to Classic.

So, the comparisons.

First, I still mostly prefer the Classic Traveller: it is a simple system that originally you could do anything with. As the setting got more concrete, if you played in the OTU things, while easier, were not quite as open-ended. But there were, and still are, a huge number of resources and any number of ways to interpret the Imperium and still play in the OTU to take advantage of all those now digital resources (yay TravellerMap!) My issues with the classic version fall into the combat: it is basically a to hit & damage roll all in one and when I first started playing, it was hard to see how a knife could still damage someone in combat armor. When I got Striker, I adjusted to more that combat style, so that the to hit roll was separated from the damage roll. And while I actually prefer the mostly random character generation, a lot of people in my group pretty much hate it. I do modify it so that you have an extra roll to replace any roll in the stats, which are rolled straight and as is. And I also allow you to roll then select the table for skills so that you can shape the character but still have that random generation going on. But character roll ups were easy and pretty fast, although that could be from doing it for years...

Mongoose Traveller is mostly a revised Classic Traveller in my opinion. It uses more of the advanced generation techniques, but not quite as much. The skill levels are between classic and classic advanced I think (and that's just a feeling). And I really do like that connections part: at allows players to connect before they hit the space bar. And if you use the package set of skills, that is also a nice bonus. I've not played much of the 2nd edition, but I think I do like the boon/bane roll. It is a similar pattern to fantasy games when you are blessed or cursed mostly.  What I don't like is how Mongoose is really sensationalizing a lot of things: they bring in things that to me are just not Traveller. Warhammer maybe, or Judge Dread, but not Traveller. Perhaps it is a British thing.

Now T5 was not a playable game. There are a lot of very interesting bits and pieces in it, but it is not a cohesive game book. And I do not like the inversion of the rolls, where you have to roll under and there are dice pools. Like the Fantasy Trip, part of the vibe of the game is the dice mechanics. While a 2D6 roll does not have a lot of curve and granularity, it is simple and a +1 or +2 go a long way. I've used a few pieces in my games that I have run in the last couple of years, but my games also tend to be pretty rules-light.

The 2nd version of T5, T5.10, will be here in a few months. So we will see if that becomes a playable system. My fear is that it will just sit on my gaming shelf, looking pretty.

T5 - Successfully Funded. Again

The 5.1 version for reprinting the T5 book, now 3 slip cased books, completed with "1,273 backers pledged $166,304 to help bring this project to life." So apparently there is some life left in it In reading a lot of the comments over on COTI, it does seem that there are some major improvements to several parts of things. I did break down and bump up to the Captain Level, $150 for something I will get for free. But I do like physical books, and there are cards that I am hoping, if somewhat not too much, to be actually useful during play.


What I wish is that Marc ran the KS and post-KS process more like Steve Jackson games. Somehow they manage to produce the PDFs and get more eyeballs on them and improve the product. While I realize there would be a lot of noise, I believe it would be very beneficial. And the lack, or at least lack of acknowledging, a true editor is also bothersome. For the amount of money raised, both times, an external editor would have been really nice. As I've mentioned all too often: you can't truly proofread your own stuff as you see what you think is there and not what is really there. In the software world I live in, this is code review.


I am looking forward to this, though. I am hoping I'll be able to run another Traveller game at some point. There are at least a couple of people wanting to play. And I'd love to be able to play - there's at least one player with the Classic books and he could run a game as well.

T5 Kickstarter

So Not A Traveller Post

Sorry - but I believe the next game we've got I'll be running a Fantasy Trip game. Probably 3 sessions, so the general plan is:

• Session 0: Basic overview of The Fantasy Trip, Character generation, and an intro to the world. And they all meet in a tavern...
• Session 1: Travel to the hamlet where the dungeon, err, mushroom is that the Dwarf mage wants for her client. We may actually start into the dungeon depending on how things go.
• Session 2: into the (small) dungeon.

Three sessions as at least two of the players will be going to Origins. Last time I went I want to say was Origins 82 in Baltimore. That's where I ended up getting Cosmic Encounter from the original developers and not a whole lot more. On a high school budget!

As this is a more tactical game than some of the gamers are used to, we'll just see how combat goes. What I am hoping is to (1) keep people entertained and (2) let this intro work well enough to play more and longer games. I've added a Trello board that one of the players has access to. What I am hoping for is a shared world.

I've not developed a whole lot on the political, religious or any other aspects. The main thing is that Edge City is a relative metropolis that encompasses multiple races, and anything that can be bought can probably be found here. The intro to the adventure is below the overland map for the game below.

Overview 

The weary travelers have come to Edge City to seek their fortunes, find lost loved ones, or have started some quest. The caravan that they have travelled with along the Downunder Route has past vast farmlands, strange woods, and they have seen the sound and fury of the East Sea as well as felt the calm ocean winds. They have heard the rumors of political unrest, of villages of witches and fey creatures. The caravan guards have joked about Stubboon as they also wondered about his lost fortunes. As they approach Edge City, they hear of the many various Guilds in the city, from the lofty Wizards Guild to the quiet rumors of the Thief’s Guild. They hear of the many temples, taverns, hostels, theaters that a large city encompasses. They hear of the myriad of races that inhabit, albeit tensely at times, the river-spanning metropolis.


As they crest the last hills, far past the farm lands, they can see the city walls, plumes of smoke from industries. Their journey as part of the caravan is coming to an end. Where will they go next?


Edge City


Edge city is a large, wall-encircled city that spans the F’urth River. There are dozens of small villages in the surrounding areas. Edge City is primarily human, but almost all races are present or have passed through. There is a City Guard that mans the walls and patrols the streets. Pretty much anything may be found in Edge City, for a price.


And the price for entrance is 1 silver. Passports of a sorts are given for visitors, and must have the official stamp. The stamp is good for 1 year. Local residents are generally known by the guard and rarely stopped. The guards are often quite talkative, and will, if asked, direct visitors to various inns and taverns. Some have family running inns outside the city walls, and those are generally a bit cheaper.


Housing ranges from $1 to 1GP/night, usually with breakfast. Dinners are extra.

Edge City Environs

Edge City is on the edge of the continent, straddling the F'urth River. It has an amazing resemblance to Ankh-Morpork as I've got that visitor's guide along with a really nice, large map. I've thrown in a few places that also show up in the various Fantasy Trip adventures, as well as my ancient mapping of Stubboon's Final Stand (which is where another Kickstarter lives, Woodfall, so Ive got a lot of material there. As well as realizing I did not put the name of that little spot there. Next iteration of the map).

I need to get a political narrative of the region, and a bit of the history. I've also been reading the Amazon 'zine I got, so that island is somewhere further off the coast. I do believe I may be bringing in some clandestine Amazons at some point.

But we do have at least some political intrigue: the Barony of the Foothills is in one of the adventures, and Woodfall is a town full of witches and others with no love for the current regime. Humans are the vast majority of people living in the area, but there are some small hamlets for goblins, orcs, halflings, and other groups. The great Edge City boasts a very diverse population, including various trolls that don't want to kill everyone on sight. But those are pretty rare. 

I put some windmills off the coast along the farmlands there. We've the Old Temple, the Temple of Dolosia and a few unnamed towns. I've also got to expand out my gods and goddesses lists. I've got yet another Kickstarter that deals with that from the other side: setting up cults and demons. So I am hoping that the group and I can build up this world. Although I do feel that a lot of the group really does not want to participate in that way, they would rather just bully their way through things it seems. Countering this, of course, we have had games where combat was avoided due to actually talking with the people. And I was pleasantly surprised when one of my Traveller player's came up with his people's name for the mechanical life. 

There is hope. I am may even create a Trello board to see if we can get more world building to happen. This is what is happening in the game we're in right now, DELVE. While the DM is mostly doing random rolls on various tables, we're creating the world. I fear I am not participating as much as a I could but I do tend towards a timid player. So: kettle meet pot :)

TFT: Adventures

As I am fairly certain / hopefully / terrified that I will be running a short session in June (possibly even shorter as two to the potential players are going to Origins) I have been reading over the Fantasy Trip and other fantasy game stuff to come up with some plans. By now readers should know I am one of those compulsive preparers. Fortunately I enjoy world building :)  The choices were for Traveller (continue previous game, new game) or The Fantasy Trip. I think TFT is a much easier sell.

Another option, straight out of the book, is having a naturalist want to hire the group to go on a delve to retrieve some rare mushrooms or other underground flora or fauna. It would smell less than the sewer dungeon! And I think the city map of Ankh-Morpork is perfect for Edge City. And handouts - first time there will be a 1 silver piece entrance fee to get their "passport". I have stamps and booklets, and can make more booklets.

I've played with making a FT style dungeon, a small and fairly simple 2 level dungeon. While one of the players may read this blog, just in case this may not be the final dungeon, nor am I going to put all my notes, to be written, in here. But in just looking over the map, one can see several areas for potential fun.

Last game we actually had a spiked trap, and the lead character did fall & get impaled. Fortunately he was our tank, so was less than half dead. My little half-elf mage would have died from the damage. I've not rolled well when leveling up in that game. Regardless, I want at least one trap in there, not too dangerous as this will relatively low level, starting characters.

In reviewing the existing traps for In The Labyrinth, as well as the far too many other things I've bought over the years, I think I'll just stick with 2 traps, one a nuisance trap early on to let them know to be aware, the other a bit more devious, and potentially dangerous.

Now, the thing about detect traps in this game as that the DM actually does the rolls. Not entirely sure I like that mechanic, so we will have to discuss that as part of session 0. I like rolling dice for my character, not having someone else roll them!

Additionally, the dungeon does need some critters and monsters. Pretty sure there will be the traditional slime or two hanging off the ceiling, a few nuisance critters, and perhaps some other critters that pose more of a threat.

The larger areas map out to the Melee or Wizard playmats - may as well get to use them as well. And I've got some beautiful art / maps from a few other Kickstarters or books or things I've managed to purchase over the years. While I can't cram all that in on this adventure, I also want the players to see this as part of a larger world. So I will need to expand out my little world a bit more. Figure out how to get rumors naturally into the game (this also applies to Traveller: I need to expand out my Pilot's guide to include that pirate supplement I got, along with the Space Patrol. And rumors, oh yes, make the world a larger place than just go here and kill that sort of thing).

I do need to stick a desert someplace there as I just got the desert creatures 'zine, and there are some cool things in there. And an island for the Amazons. Which may map into that Architect book of maps - there is a really nice small island detailed there.

T5 Kickstarter

Kind of going full circle here: when I found the T5 Kickstarter, I jumped in. It was my very first Kickstarter, and no, the first hit was not free!  That lead me to a bunch of things, including rekindling my interest in gaming again, especially Traveller. So I found my old gaming group, who, after 30 years, were still gaming. I've actually been in touch with a couple of my college gaming buddies, but simply by email for the most part. Sadly this group does not play Traveller much, although there is some interest still.

I've gone ahead & joined the T5.10 release Kickstarter, even though I am pretty certain I'll never play it. For me, Traveller is a 2D6 roll over game, and changing that base mechanic to a multiple dice roll under just seems, well wrong. But there is a lot of stuff in there, and the dice mechanics do make some things have a better granularity for percentages. But honestly, you could do the same thing via a d100 roll if you want to get down the percentage points.

And the cards: we'll see how those look. I can make my own cards that fit my universe, but I am interested in the poker deck of cards.

And speaking of cards: the Fantasy Trip card Deck of Destiny is really going well. I'm in at the I Want It All again - spending more money on the Fantasy Trip than Traveller (well, maybe not: there's been quite a bit for Mongoose Traveller: the Great Rift, Element Class Cruisers, and now the JTAS).

And I may be dungeon mastering a short session in June for TFT. Which means I really need to read the rules a bit more, and see about a short adventure. As I've got that really large map of Ankh-Morpork which is a stand in for my Edge City on my maps, I am thinking a sewer crawl.

The characters, after a long overland journey, are left at the gates of the great Edge City, a bulwark against the invading (hmm, invading what? It is on the eastern edge of the continent at the mouth of a river. Invading Vikings? Orcs? What lives to the east that would be invading every few decades?)

At the gate they are met with the city Guards, who can direct them to a jobs house or some good taverns. They've gotten to know each other a little on the way to the city, so hopefully decide to stick together. One of the guards will mention that unless they can pay for hostels, they can't stay in the city unless they are working or can keep themselves solvent. The will mention that there is some pretty easy money for the next sewer sweep.

The sewers are large, megahex wide natural and manmade caverns beneath the city. It is also part of the natural water system, so is not as bad as it could be. However, bandits and creatures sometimes make their homes there, and sporadically the guards organize a sweep. They hire a lot of newcomers and provide some basic weapons should the players not have their own.

I do need to look at the character generation, and keep them a bit poor to begin with. But at least I should be able to use my fantasy coins in a real game.

I'll have to plan a basic dungeon, or try the random dungeon from the box top. I'll try that this weekend to see if that is a viable plan.

I know I've posted this map before, but I need to look at it again and see where I can place a few other things I've got.

Traveller Cards

Just throwing these out there for the half dozen people who read this blog...

Making a card sheet. not sure if I should do an image on one side and the info on the other yet. Versions below are trying to put it all on one side.

And May the 4th be with you!

Traveller 5 - a new Kickstarter

For once I am actually on the fence about a Traveller Kickstarter to republish the book, this time in a 3 volume set reminiscent of the original books but just really, really large. While I do like many aspects of T5, I just don't see playing or running it. And $100 for the books (and I'll admit it, should I back it, it will be at the $150 level) seems high. Yet I've spent more than that on the Fantasy Trip stuff. I just feel I am getting more for my money with TFT: the game play is the same as it was, just really nicely updated components. And a lot of components it is indeed!

The rolls so many dice under the target roll just does not suit me for Traveller. I played the 2D6 for years and that is part of the Traveller charm. And the fact that I would be paying again for something I already bought, with no real guarantee that it is actually better this time around (the PDF for the table of contents has spelling issues. It is only 3 pages and I found issues there already) does not help.

I will get the PDF - that is free at least as I did back the last one. I'd rather get the PDF first to be able to see if I want to actually get the hardbacks.

Some of the add-ons I've already got - the book and the, to me, disappointing deck plans. Hence not the owner on board level. The cards are somewhat meh to me. Too generic, not enough of the Traveller vibe. Perhaps I am just too nostalgic for the old days.

For me, the cards would be a lot more useful if they did an entire deck for weapons, and armor, and miscellaneous things. There have been several people who have made weapons cards over the years, and those are very useful. One of the reasons I backed the card game was hoping to get some useful cards that could be used as play aids. Alas, that did not really happen.

I bought the Paladin deck of spells for my D&D game. I don't have a players guide or anything, and spells are one of the more complicated parts of D&D. The cards are a great idea to make it easier to play: I just put out the spells I have in front of me, no need to borrow a books, spend 15 minutes trying to find the spell, and breaking the game flow. The Fantasy Trip's latest kickstarter is going down that path in large part. I don't think the spells are there per se, but weapons, armor and NPCs, beasties and other game things are. So the games should flow a lot easier as well.

For Traveller, it needs to have a nice set of weapons cards that have the image on one side, and the stats and info on the other. I keep thinking I'll get to that (the ones I have from COTI are classic, and my combat is more damage soaking / Mongoose style than Classic). Cards for vacc suits, vehicles, things like that. The world cards are pretty nice.

Actually - I just picked up the few cards I do have, such as the staple gun. Assuming I could figure out combat in T5 (supposedly they have fixed in in 5.10) those would be the cards that would be useful. There just needs to be a much wider range. Heck - just a PDF so we could print it ourselves would be okay. I think there are only about 12 or so weapon cards: there needs to be an entire deck of them.  A smart choice would be to make them 2 sided: 1 side for T5 stats, the other Mongoose or, dare I say it, Classic. But Mongoose would work as it is actually in print, and having dual use cards would be useful I would think.

So maybe I need to get crafty beyond the ID cards I already did, and see about some weapons cards. And vacc suits - after all, we are in space!

Ships Locker: 4mm Gauss Pistol

4 mm Gauss Auto Pistol

Cr: 1250, TL D

Magazine: 30 rounds, Cr40

Range:

• Effective - 50m (6)
• Long - 100m (3)
• Extreme - 175m (1)

Weight: 1650 grams; magazine (30 rounds): 350 grams

Size: 45cm long, handle 20cm, barrel 8cm diameter

Clip size: 15x5.4x2cm

Rechargeable batteries: time between recharge: 3000 rounds (100 clips).

Options:

• hi-res scope, computer enhanced, 10x50 lenses, light enhancement and passive IR. Cr250, 320grams, 15x3.5cm
• carry-all personalock (tm) with composite laminate case (.25cm armr, AR2), holds autopistol and 5 clips. Cr 105, 750 grams, 50x25x10cm
• Repair kit: battery tester, electronic diagnostic computer, microtools, cleaning fluids, cloths and utensils. Cr795, 1050grams, 25x20x5cm

The hand-drawn picture looks alarmingly like one of those caulking guns...Pretty sure this is old Striker stuff. 

Trying to get through the T5 Gunmaker is...challenging. At least in the book - I need to check the 5.09 version to see if they've made it easier. And 5.1 is supposed to be coming out soon.

AltGPM-13

Advanced Light Gauss Pistol Man - 13

Range: 2

Effects: Bullet 3

Pretty much a guess there...

via https://www.allthetests.com/quiz31/picture/pic_1402980882_6.jpg

Bestiary: Whalrus

The Whalrus is a cold-world animal that lives on floating ice islands. Able to hold its breath for more than an hour, the whalrus is a warm-blooded animal prized for both its ivory and oil. There are two sexes, and mating season occurs once every 2-3 years. There are between 2 and 6 young per breeding cycle, and the young stay with their parents for at least 2 years. The whalrus lives in large groups called bundles, with between 30-40 adults and up to 150 or so young in various age groups. They are omnivorous, eating local seaweeds as well as small sea creatures similar to plankton. The average life span is 35-40 years.

Their ivory, when worked like scrimshaw, is prized and expensive. Collectors pay large amounts of credits for well-crafted art. Additionally, the oils produced are useful in a variety of cooking methods and contains copious vitamins. It is rumored that the oils are being examined for anagathic benefits. The blubber, when deep fried, is considered a delicacy, and the meat from a whalrus, while having a distinctive odor, is an excellent source of protein.

Female tend to be larger than the males. An average female is close to 600 pounds (272 kg), a male averages 500 pounds (226 kg). They have 30 hit points with the equivalent of cloth armor due to their thick blubber.  While not aggressive, they are protective of their young and tend towards herd mentality in defense. On ground they are slow, and a human can easily outwalk them. In the water, though, they are much more agile than expected. They have been known to sink small submersibles that get too close to their young.

Possible game use: 

1. You are hired to hunt several of these to bring in several kilograms of their ivory, blubber and meat.

2. You are hired by animal rights people to protect a local bundle from hunters.

3. You are hired as part of a scientific team to observe a local bundle, and get in the middle of a fight between hunters and animal rights activists.

4. You are eating an excellent meal at the TAS, and find that the meat is from the whalrus. There is a hunting party going in the next few days, and you are invited along.

5. A local population sees the whalrus as their totem, and they have an almost mystical connection with the local bundle. Turns out the whalrus are slightly psionic and can extend their bundle to non-whalrus sophonts.

6. The whalrus is actually a sophont who has turned their backs to technology. 

Create your own at: http://digitalcultures.pl/hybridizer/

Gargoyle Rock

Digging back through my college hand-drawn maps and attempting to update them via Campaign Cartographer. Below is Gargoyle Rock, a smallish island full of gargoyles. My guess is I had just bought the gargoyle miniatures and wanted them to have their own island. Not sure where this is in the broader scheme of things as I never made a master map...And for some reason, my gargoyles are green but have pink wing membranes. I am wondering if I had a lack of paints and just used what I had.

Not sure what gaming system I was using, but the notes on the side of the map indicate:
Population: 1,050
Inhabitants: Gargoyles
Location: West end of Divisor River
Access: Warlock Cloak (now that sounds interesting!)
Statistical Information: 

• Magic Resistance: 0
• Death Resistance: 5
• Mobility (unity): 7
• Range: Land 0.5, air 5 (guess they are slow on the ground and fast in the air)
• Evil-Neutral: 2
• Size: 25 miles, 625 square miles
• Highlights - minimal vegetation, Forketh River is slowly dividing the island in half, mage floatation: 25%

I wonder what mage floatation is?

The original map is pretty sparse. I guess having only 3 or 4 gargoyle miniatures Ifelt that their world did not need too much detailing.

         

Patron Encounter - Mad Scientist

Equipment needed:  None; optionally their own ship.
Skills needed: depends if they are piloting their own craft or travelling as passengers. Admin, Legal, Forgery, Carousing, and personal skills could come in handy.

Players Information: In searching for cargo on the cargo boards, the group sees a request for a specialized package pickup from a neighboring world that pays above and beyond normal rates. Upon calling, they converse with a Dr, Ruce Robarne. There is a final piece to an invention he has been working on for several years, and the only nearby planet that can produce the part refuses to sell it to him. Upon pressing as to why, it turns out that this particular part is considered illegal on this planet. All he needs is to get it to the port, and he says he can get it from there. There should be no legal issues for the group.

If the group does not have their own ship, he is willing to pay for up to 4 people (2 at high passage, 4 at mid passage) to the neighboring world on a the next subsidized liner and to retrieve the parts. He gives them a line of credit that is valid in this section of space that will cover the costs.

If the group has their own ship, he is willing to pay basically for fuel, salaries and Cr3000 for transporting what amounts to a 2dton cargo. They are free to carry other cargo of course if this is a merchant vessel.

Upon successful transportation to a designated warehouse, he will pay up to Cr10,000 per person for a total of Cr40,000.

Referee Information
1. All is at it seems: the neighboring worlds are experiencing a trade embargo in an escalating trade war, and supplies of certain parts and severely curtailed.
2. The scientist is a deep-cover spy from the neighboring world, and the parts in question are additional equipment loads to help him continue his mission.
3. The scientist is one of the forgetful scientists types: when the group returns with the package safely stored in the warehouse, he will profess to no knowledge of their transaction.
4. The package is interdicted by the system. Getting it unloaded, even in the port, may require some finesse with the local and port authorities.
5. The scientist refuses to actually pay until the Travellers actually deliver the parts to his lab. The parts are illegal on this world.
6. The scientist is indeed a mad scientist, and the completion of his project is a bomb powerful enough to take out a small city. He is wanting to take over the world!

General notes: I just started looking for public domain science fiction images. I am still thinking about a month challenge, so perhaps this is a warmup...get an image, wrap something around it.

Miscellaneous Musings

I was talking with one of my friends and the whole month challenge thing came up. You know, when you do a post a day for 30 days. Or in the case of Yet Another Traveller Blog, one per letter of the alphabet (I've got his blog linked to the right - if you've not seen it, you really need to as it is an excellent source of Traveller goodness).

It would be challenging (hah! that's the point) but something I am considering to do. I got some good reactions from my Traveller Patron post, so I am thinking I may try something like that. Some nugget of Traveller usefulness, such as NPCs, or maps, or patron encounters. I think there is an actual month this happens across multiple blogs, but I'll still think about it.

I've also decided to try yet again with the Traveller tracker. Although this time perhaps a web-based project. Sigh. I know, how many times will it take? I could wimp out and go back to the Winforms which would be the easiest, and I could just restart with a smaller scale for the UWP version. I downloaded the Visual Studio 19 and it has a few more project options which is why I was considering the web one, but then I'd have to create a user system as well so that people could have their own ships. And I still really prefer more stand-alone desktop projects that have optional internet connections. Because the internet is not available everywhere. Still thinking about it, just have to actually do something about it.

And here is the beach our Delve characters have washed ashore on. The tower is really supposed to be a ship mast with a metal cage. Good ol' Bertram lives up there. We rescued some Brownies before they managed to eat Granite's big toe (well, they were starving).

Death Test - Triumph

Despite being down to three characters, two of which were badly wounded, they managed to survive. Now they did avoid the bear room, then after that, kept going west. So they only had to cover 7 rooms. But - the last room had a giant. One hit and it would be instant death. The characters tried to run out the door, but bounced back. This was their first, and it turns out, only time, they tried to avoid combat. Well, it was a giant!

Fortunately, giants have a pretty low DX, 9. And in the 4 combat rounds he never laid a club on anyone, and each of the remaining three fighters managed to score hits and whittle him down to size. Leaving that room, they found stairs and past that curtain, the recruitment officer.

Almost 400 points were given based on the kills. These are divided by the original number of fighters, 6. The remaining three only made recruit (but fast recruits!) as they managed to avoid a fair amount of combat by going straight through. So they garnered 70 experience points apiece, not even enough to bump a single stat.

Next round, I will have 4 higher caliber fighters go in and see what we can do. And choose a different path.

Ahh - a giant! Run away!

Bounce! Ahh, a giant!

That giant sure was clumsy!

Death Test - The Fantasy Trip

The big box showed up, and my characters keep dying. I started with 4 random fighters from the deck of cards. These cards are great: all you need to know about the character for combat at least, and being wet/dry erase, you can easily track their stats as they inevitably go down.

My first foray into the Death Test had four fighters. Apparently bears are really tough and hard to kill (wow, just like in real life!). My four fighters did not make it out.

My second foray is on going. I started with 6 fighters. One has been killed by a human fighter, one by a gargoyle, and the last one was just offed by a goblin. I am down to 3 characters, 2 of which are heavily injured. My guess is that the next room will be the final for them.

I either need to start with a larger party, or bump up some stats. This Death Test is not a test, it is just a fact!

And the mat ends up being a lot more useful than I would have thought. The ref screen has most of the info I need as I've not played in 30-40 years.

Bringing the box to the next gaming session. We are probably playing Delve, but who knows.

Patron Encounter

Players: 2 - 6
Equipment needed: none
Skills needed: none, but recon, survival or hunting would be useful
Patron Type: Scientist
World: something with a breathable atmosphere and at least 30% water. The starport could be anything really but there needs to be enough people to have at least a small local population as well as a fair number of transients but large swaths of raw countryside. As well as a local university.

While at the port and enjoying the sites, the Travellers are approached by a bedraggled looking older man, waving what appears to be a cryogenic test tube of some sort. He asks for some a few moments of their time.  Sir Reginald Artani was a well-respected archeologist, but in the last few years has been searching for what all others believe is extinct, the Mega-Duckahedron that was native to the planet more than a million years ago. He has lost his tenured position at the university after declaring that this extinct giant duck was still alive in the hinterlands. He exhausted his personal finances after losing his job, and is now searching for someone to help prove his theory.

Should the Travellers take some time, there is indeed a very large feather in the test tube. Should they research this at the university they will see that it does match fossil remnants of the 8 foot tall duck dino. Sir Reginald has satellite maps of the location where he found this, a journey of several days via air/raft or ATV  He has an ancient ATV large enough for 8 people. He will split any proceeds from the discovery with the group, and swears he has potential buyers in the millions of credits range for a live specimen.

1. All is as he says: there are a few groupings left of this large feathered dinosaur duck. The maps, searching, finding, capturing and returning a live specimen is up to the referee. While not millions of credits, several hundred thousand will be provided.
2. All is as he says, but there is just the one remaining animal (hey, it happens in movies all the time). Same as (1) above.
3. There are no living dinoducks left, but there are remains that are only a few hundred years old, hence the well preserved feather. Perhaps a few thousand credits reward for helping rewrite the local research on the local fauna.
4. Sir Reginald is deluded, and someone is playing a cruel hoax on him for something he did years before (failing a student? didn't approve a published paper?). Nothing more, nothing less. Just lost time for all involved.
5. There is no dinoduck, and someone is out to kill Sir Reginald. Once out in the hinterlands, there will be a lone gunner who is not too picky about who he kills.
6. Sir Reginald is the con man for a slave labor group in the hinterlands. Once miles into the wilderness, they will be surrounded by armed gunmen and taken as forced labor in an illegal crop farm.