Session 0.9 - Ship and crew overview

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Here is the ship and crew overview. I'll do a 0.91 go get Malik embedded with the crew (probably as a result of his 3rd term, being embedded in a ASB&TS trading ship a few years ago, and writing a favorable series of articles) in the next post.

The stats are mostly Mongoose 2nd edition, created using the High Guard book. I may go back to Classic Traveller and see if I can create the ship that way, and how much it would cost. The High Guard stats are correct other than the pricing. Ship numbers in my universe are the ship type (from Classic High Guard), and the first 5 digits from the USP (size, configuration, jump, maneuver, power), then the system initials where it was built, then some additional random numbers. At least that's what I am doing now (and think I used to do it that way, a long time ago).

Sticking with the 300 tons. In looking at the outside image, it is 3 decks just like a Scout ship, just a bit taller really, and not so Planet of the Apes Icarus-like. In fact, the designer (0-Hour) said he created this ship after the 2nd Star Wars movie as he liked Darth Maul's ship. It was used in his gaming at the time. While the interior is more than 3x the Scout plans, I'm okay with that.

Going with the overall dimensions it is actually 4,500 dtons. But that is the box shape, that is, the maximum dimensions. Counting the 5 foot squares in the lower cargo bay there are 105 which normally is about 50 tons. The ceiling is a bit higher, so I went with 75 tons for a nice, round number. Taking that and sort of filling in the other spaces I get about 3 times that much or so. Round up to 300 tons. Counting squares the main deck is about 300 tons, so really close enough.

I know - plugging 0-Hour. But Ryan Wolf's stuff is really great, if not ideal for Traveller. But as I do play a rules light game mostly... The image below is from his web site in the Starfinder area and free to download.

Solo Session 0.8 - Captain Lynwood Laux

It took a few tries (and now I have some NPCs as needed) to get something to what I was going for. One was really close: started with the merchants, then pirates, then back to merchants, then pirates, then prison...but his skill set was not quite what I wanted. I wanted a hot-shot pilot who wants to fly free. Although the pirate thing would have been good if the character just got some piloting skills.

Anyway, this character is from the quadrant capitol, D'Arlee.

Lynwood Laux 776DB6, age 48, ship Captain

Pilot (Spacecraft-3, Small craft-1, Capital Ships-1), Admin-1, Carouse-1, Electronics (Comms-1, Remote Ops-1, Sensors-1), Flyer (Grav-1), Gun (Slug-1), Gunner (Turret-1), Leadership-1, Melee (Blade-1), Tactics (Naval-1), Animals-0, Athletics-0, Language-0, Vacc Suit-1

Naval University, ages 18-22:
Taking advantage of youth, you party as much as you study. Gain Carouse 1. You made it! You graduated from the Naval Academy and the future looks bright! You have successfully graduated.  An opportunity awaits you in the Navy.  If you choose enlist now you will be able to train 3 of your service skills to rating 1, and get a chance at commission immediately with a bonus of +2.  Will you join the Navy? [Accepted] After 4 years at the Naval Academy you graduated and immediately entered the service.

Navy, Term 1, ages 22-24:
Sorry, you were passed over for promotion this term. It's time they start respecting you for all your hard work!
ensure [blade] at least 1, electronics +1, new ally: criminal syndicate

Navy, Term 2, ages 24-28 (actually got out of the Navy, tried and failed to get into the Merchants, then drafted back to the Navy!

There was a mishap during this term! Injury Modified Str by -2 Mustering Out Benefit: Int +1 In this career, you were injured [Str: -2 points. ].
 Your previous employer covers (75%) of the cost, leaving you to pay [2500] credits.
 Let this opportunity (and potential debt) pass, or get professional medical attention? Your out of pocket cost will be [2500] credits to heal Str: -2 points.
You seek professional medical attention. It's time to heal!
admin +1, str +2, -2500 credits

Navy, Term 3, ages 28-32
There was a mishap during this term! Placed in the frozen watch (cryogenically stored on board ship) and revived improperly. Reduce Strength, Dexterity or Endurance by 1 due to muscle wastage. Modified Str by -1 Two Ship Shares or +1 Edu Mustering Out Benefit: Ship Shares Mustering Out Benefit: Ship Shares Mustering Out Benefit: Ship Shares [2] In this career, you were injured [Str: -1 point. ].
 Your previous employer covers (75%) of the cost, leaving you to pay [1250] credits.
 Let this opportunity (and potential debt) pass, or get professional medical attention? Your out of pocket cost will be [1250] credits to heal Str: -1 point.
You seek professional medical attention. It's time to heal!
naval +1, str +1, -1250 credits

Navy, Term 4, ages 32-36
You display heroism in battle, saving the whole ship. You may gain a promotion or a commission automatically. Gain an automatic promotion! You were promoted Reduce one physical attribute by 1 Modified End by -1
pilot +1, ensure [leadership] at least 1, electronics +1, small craft +1

Navy, Term 5, ages 36-40
Your vessel participates in a notable military engagement. Gain one of the following at 1. You were promoted
electronics +1, ensure [capital ships] at least 1, ensure [pilot] at least 1, ensure [naval] at least 1, pilot +1

Navy, Term 6, ages 40-44
There was a mishap during this term! Injury You'll never forget the feeling of losing a part of yourself. Choose between reducing your Strength or your Dexterity by 1 Reduce three physical attributes by 1 Modified Str by -1, Modified Dex by -1, Modified End by -1 Ship's Boat or two Ship Shares Mustering Out Benefit: Ship Shares Mustering Out Benefit: Ship Shares Mustering Out Benefit: Ship Shares [2] Choose between a Personal Vehicle or Ship Share (1) Mustering Out Benefit: Ship Shares Mustering Out Benefit: Ship Shares Mustering Out Benefit: Ship Shares [2] Mustering Out Benefit: Nontransferable, lifetime membership in the exclusive Traveller’s Aid Society (TAS), a private organisation that maintains hostels and facilities at most class A and B starports. Facilities are available (at reasonable cost) to members and their guests. Membership is a reward for heroism or extraordinary service to the Society rather than  an official benefit from a career. The Traveller’s Aid Society is an exclusive organisation, made up of those who are truly citizens of the galaxy, not just a single world.  Every two months, members are provided one high passage to each member. This passage may be used, retained or sold. Congratulations! Because of your 24 years of service, you can draw a pension of 12000 credits on the 1st of every year at any A or B starport. Mustering Out Benefit: Gained Yearly Pension of 12000 credits In this career, you were injured [Str: -1 point. ].
 Your previous employer covers (100%) of the cost, leaving you to pay [0] credits.
 Let this opportunity (and potential debt) pass, or get professional medical attention? Your out of pocket cost will be [0] credits to heal Str: -1 point.
You seek professional medical attention. It's time to heal!
flyer +1, str -1, str +1

Even though this is a Star Wars toy, it does present a slightly older guy who looks like he coul dbe ex-Navy. From http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/STAR-WARS-Vintage-Naboo-Pilot-with-Duster-98529.jpg

Solo Session 0.7 - Interrelationships

I'll flesh out how Malik joins the No Refunds later, but at the start of this campaign, we have the following relationships:

Lynwood is good friends with Eaaia.

Eaaia is apparently an inseparable buddy with Dr. Teag.

Dr. Teag is somehow related to our erstwhile Captain.

Lando, our engineer, is somehow a competitive rival to Malik (school rivalry across the stars?)

And Malik is secretly jealous of the good doctor.

Random rolls on the PC relationship table, then picking or random character assignment. 

We also have to have 3 life events; fortunately character generation does do that in Cepheus and Mongoose generation (one of the part of the systems I really like as it does allow for creativity outside my normal stuff. Another reason I really like Traveller: random character generation can bring to life a character I never would have designed or point picked). 

Malik, the titular hero of the story, has an attachment to a stuffed beaked monkey doll he has had since early childhood. It is stuffed into his travel bag most of the time. He has also brought down not one, but two, political leaders during his journalism career. Additionally, he has been mugged. And he does have a life-long friend made in childhood (I know, we've got four now for Malik)

Lando, the engineer, has been jailed for a crime he did not do, actually hung out with the right kinds of people in college (and finished his graduate degree: this is where the jealousy part above should have played out; alas, it did not). He also has a secret addiction. Now the question is - addiction to what? Drugs, gambling, porn? Its so secret I don't even know!

Eaaia, the steward/broker/cargo master, has had some legal experience with her mother's merchant service, carried out some secret task for her previous captain, which while not rewarded with a promotion, did get her some ship shares. Finally, she feels as if she had made some terrible mistake and fears repeating that. Dropping out of college, perhaps?

Robard, the doctor, harbors some resentment for being blamed for the deaths of his crew during a decompression exercise while in the Navy. He has earned a very prestigious award for his research. His third life event was someone sabotaging his work, forcing him to leave the research group.

And our erstwhile Captain Lynwood Laux? I still need to roll him up. But I am thinking, perhaps a pirate trying to go straight? I'll roll up some pirate characters and see if any fit.

"Hi Lynwood, what do you want to be when you grow up? A pirate you say? How cute!"  Little do they know...

And if I go that route, the ship payments may end up being a bit less as perhaps the No Refunds is really a pirate corsair...we shall see.

Solo Session 0.6 - meet the No Refunds

Poking through the various ships I have, the Lakota from 0-Hour seems like a good fit. While these deck plans are definitely NOT Traveller-compatible per se, I do like the way they look. Making an educated guess based on the cargo bay (being 7x15 5' squares, which is close enough to 50 dTons for me), guestimating the ship to be 300 tons. Just take that section and lay it over the map a few times :) and the interior is maybe 3-4 times the size of a Scout ship, depending on which Scout version you pick.

Edit: the actual dimensions of the lower cargo bay come out to 1087.36691 cubic meters, or 77 dTons. I was counting squares, but there is a 15 foot ceiling there which amounts to 4.8 meters. So I may have to bump the size to 400 tons which was my original guess and I think more fitting to the shown deck plans. And that forward area also has lower door ramp or hatches so would be usable as cargo storage as well. There will be a follow-up corrections post (oddly my first draft was with 400 tons)

"This class was designed as a fast, multipurpose transport and it has seen considerable success since its launch a few years ago. Many captains appreciate the armament, specious cargo deck and dedicated vehicle bay."

Working with Mongoose 2e High Guard I can sort of make that work, Of course, fuel tanks in these deck plans are just not there for the most part, but I am willing to forego that for the aesthetics. Heck - the ship has fins (which actually does give the pilot +2 on all pilot checks when in atmosphere. Plus they look cool. And plus some fuel is stored there. There are not any TL 14 ship yards in the D'Arlee Quadrant. There are at least two systems with an A port and TL 13, so I am going with the ports tend to import a lot of tech for maintenance, as well as having Makers in limited quantities and abilities.

Using a 300 ton streamlined hull, the armor is bonded super dense giving it level 4 protection. Using Kwas Maneuver 4 engines, a Ling-Standard power core and General Products J2 jump drive, the No Refunds is able to cover all of D'Arlee easily, There are six double staterooms, used mostly by the crew, leaving two for passengers. There is an expansive lounge and fully stocked medical bay. There are 6 Niagra 2 life pods in the commons area, each capable of holding two people. Fuel tankage of 63 dTons gives 4 weeks of power and allows for 1 jump 2 or two jump 1. The standard bridge houses navigation and sensor stations as well as all other ship controls. It currently has civilian grade sensors and a computer/15. Currently sporting one triple turret that houses a sandcaster, missile launcher and a beam laser, the owner is truly wanting to upgrade to a few more turrets.

With a spacious lower 50 dTon cargo bay with full doors on either side, cargo loading is generally quite easy. The dedicated shuttle bay currently stands empty of a shuttle, and is used for an additional 25 tons of cargo space. Unfortunately there are only ceiling hatches for larger cargo that cannot be moved through the ship. One day he may be able to afford a shuttle!

A rough cost estimate (and not including software) is: MCr 86.15. Or Cr358,958 each month. Just for the payment. Estimated operating expenses per month are:

Life support: 6x1000             6000

Maintenance:                         7179

                                               ====

                                               13179 / month

Crew: they are on a shares system

Fuel: Cr500x63 per jump 2:  31500

I am going to go ahead and throw in wilderness refueling. I know there are costs there but close enough.

Now, the captain may not have bought this brand new, so let's cut the mortgage in half and make the ship 23 years old. So a Cr179,479 per month for the mortgage, and he has paid off 10 years so far, leaving 30 years. Meaning he does own a quarter of the ship at least :)

And some ship quirks (nothing in engineering as our engineer is extremely well qualified!). I have a 77 Quirks table (no idea where I found it but a net search should find it). Rolling the percentile I got hull and structure, then 2d6 for a variable transponder (which sounds more like a feature!):

Variable Transponder: The ship's transponder can be set to a number of different identities. Roll 1D; on a roll of 1 or 2, the transponder has one alternate setting besides the "honest" one; on a roll of 3 or 4, it has two alternates; on a roll of 5, it has 1D+2 alternates; on a roll of 6, it has an unlimited number of settings.  If someone in authority notices the transponder doing the wrong thing, the ship will usually be inspected; if the transponder is determined to be rigged, the referee must determine the consequences, but they will generally include a fine of at least 1% of the value of the ship. The CI of this Quirk is highly variable depending on circumstances. 

Rolling a 3, we have 1 honest transponder and 2 alternatives. So hey, that quirk was a boon!

Session 0.7 - Meet the Ship's Doctor and Astrogator

I did manage to roll up a character that had 2 skill sets I needed (took a couple of tries).  Some notes on my rolls: I roll the stats in order, then give myself 1 extra roll to replace the lowest (if lower or equal to the lowest, re-roll). Then I roll for race, where 1-4 is human, 5 Vargr, and 6 Aslan. Then gender, even for female, odd for male. I will on occasion fudge a roll if the character is moving in the direction I want, but I try not to. Skills I roll as is: pick the table, roll. When generating characters for a play group I do let them roll then pick the table. Still random, but they have a bit more control over their skill set. And I find interesting names via various random name generators out there.

While I will be getting ship's cards from the T5 KS, I'll probably also get around to generating them for this group. Who knows - the ship may turn up in the next game I run and not just be the SOLO experiment.

Robard Teag, 8768B3, age 39, Medic and Astrogrator

Medic-3, Astrogation-1, Science (Cosmology-1), Pilot-0, Vacc Suit-0, Athletics-0, Gunner-0, Mechanic-0, Gun Combat-0

Growing up on Monk (A62A405-D, 1303 D'Arlee Quadrant), Robard grew up in Shii, one of three large underwater cities on Monk. Unfortunately he was raised in the under-levels, where low paid workers lived. Monk has no government per se, but maintains a high technological level due to several research, development and manufacturing concerns. As a result of this, regardless of social strata, all citizens get schooling from some organization or another. While not overly bright, Robard is a bit above average but has a innate desire to learn. This is really fueled by his desire to leave Monk. He managed to get into a university, graduating barely with his pre-med and astrogation certifications. This bumped his education from 9 to B (interestingly: Mongoose does +2 to education, and Cepheus just moves it to A). 

Attempting to join a scholar research group to continue his medical career, he was rejected. In solace, and in continuing his quest to get off planet, he joins the Navy, entering the Flight branch. Basic training gave him familiarity with a variety of equipment and skills. Unfortunately, he was blamed for the death of his section in a decompression exercise, even though it was not his fault. 

Leaving the Navy, he re-applied to another scholar group, this time on Zonin, where he was discharged (A474455-D, 1603 D'Arlee Quadrant). Another high-technology system, Robard did well his first term there, earning a prestigious prize, picking up Cosmology along the way. Sadly he was not promoted.

His next term there (4th for those counting) he took advanced training, picking up Language 1 as well as another medical level (this part may be a bit fudged: this level indicate Medic 1 for that rank, but as he already has medic 2, going with giving a +1. Plus now he can be called Doctor, Doctor Teag).

Continuing on, disaster hits poor Robard again. His work is sabotaged, and he leaves the company a dispirited man at 38.  

His benefits, all he has to show at this point, is Cr60,000 and a couple of ship shares. Which rolls into 4 shares on the No Refunds now.

So our updated crew roster:
Lynwood, Captain (majority shareholder: 12 shares?)
First Officer Eaaia, Steward/Broker/Cargo master, 6 shares (she parlayed he 3 ship shares so is also part owner)

2nd Officer Robardo, Medic, Astrogator, 4 shares

3rd Officer Lando, Engineer, 2 shares

4th Officer, Malik Castillion (the "primary" character I'll be playing), sensor Ops, steward, ship historian, roustabout (he is pretty much the gopher of the group). 1 share

The way the shares may work is whatever profits they make, they get that percentage. Assuming this is the entire crew complement, if we get to 25 shares then Lynwood would have 12 shares. After ship costs are taken out, and credits towards the next cargo are placed aside. If we have Cr20,000 left over, Lynwood takes 12/25 of that for Cr9600. Poor Malik gets 1/25 or Cr800. I may have to come up with a way to improve how shares will work. Or hope they have some big profits!

We don't have a gunner, and as this group is working on the interface between the League and the Imperium, that may be a good idea. And I still have to come up with a ship, traditional free trader or one of the many, many other ships I have that can be used as a free trader. May have to look through that 0-Hour stash I have from backing all (except the 1st) of those Kickstarters. It needs to be in the 200-400 ton range I am thinking.

Oddly enough from John Brazer Enterprises. Pretty sure I've bought some of his stuff.  Source: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4Byw2

Solo session 0.6 - meet the engineer

Lando Dietgard, 697BA8, age 29, Engineer

Engineer (Jump 3, Man-2, Power-1, Life Support-1), Carousing-1, Sensors (Comms-1), Trade (Space Construction-1), Advocate-1

Born on Preacep (0803 D'Arlee Quadrant), Lando grew up a bit below the poverty line, and lacked many of the educational benefits that others may enjoy. However, gaining a scholarship to the World University (this was the fudged roll), he graduated with honors (and honestly rolled!), gaining a degree in Jump mechanics with a minor in maneuver drive systems, as well as a power systems certification. His college career brought him face to face with people from other walks of life, and he picked up both Carousing and improved his social ranking from 6 to 8. Graduating bumped his education level from 6 to an A.

 Continuing his education, he struggled through grad school but did graduate, with a specialty in life support. He also received an additional certification for maneuver drives, bumping that to 2.

His first job out of grad school, Lando was working on the 2nd orbital station, just a cog in the large firm of Winters and Daughters, LLC. Unfortunately, the firm made some bad choices, and threw Lando under the bus, accusing him of inflating the contract prices and pocketing the extra. 

Thrown into jail for a crime he did not commit, Lando studies hard. It is something he knows how to do! Gaining the Advocate skill, he gets himself out of jail, a free man.

Lynwood Laux seems to appreciate the misfits, and needing an engineer, he employs the wunderkid Lando. Lando tends to spend a lot of his free time in the engineering spaces, tinkering with the drives. The No Refunds runs better than most ships. While competent in the engineering bays, Lando also seems sociable with a wide range of people. 

I'll see if I can detail both Kimitri (Ewo) and Preacep over the next few days. Still need to generate Lynwood, and get a character that has pilot & astrogation. And we may need a medic if they take passengers. And as this group is not always above the law, they may need a medic for themselves. 

So far our crew is:

Lynwood, Captain (majority shareholder: 10 shares?)

Eaaia, Steward/Broker/Cargo master, 6 shares (she parlayed he 3 ship shares so is also part owner)

Lando, Engineer, 2 shares

Malik Castillion (the "primary" character I'll be playing), sensor Ops, steward, ship historian, roustabout (he is pretty much the gopher of the group). 1 share

Needed: gunner, medic. And hopefully someone cross-trained in engineering.

The SOLO book also has you draw the relationship graph between the characters as well as secrets and other life events. Obviously Lando has the secret of being an ex-con. There are some other aspects to the SOLO system I've yet to read and put into play. Just setting the stage so far (and as always, perhaps over-dressing it. But it is fun for me!)

Interestingly enough, there is another play aid I got on Kickstarter, Woodfall (see Woodfall on my blog) and the KS site: Woodfall on Kickstarter that has a similar NPC relationship graph. I even tried this a while back during my first Traveller game in decades: Traveller Reaction Rolls Matrix

From Character Art

Fantasy Trip Game - next session

The group got to Hamor after moving the bodies off the trail. It was about another hour journey. They were met at the small inn by a young boy who greeted Maggie the pony with affection. During the meal of stewed mutton and perry (much perry for Sir Rabbit) their host asked them about the journey. The inn was empty other than this group, and discussion about the pear orchards in the back (which is where the perry comes from), local recent attacks from various brigands, and talk of the wood cutters that ply the path to Edge City from the deep woods, keeping that city supplied with both lumber and wood for the fires that feed and warm the population.

It was a restful night, with Glori sleeping in a private room with her guardian outside the door. The players group slept in a large barracks-like room that was comfortable and well kept if simple. Much more comfortable than sleeping on the ground.

Early next morning, our woodsman Barnard went a-hunting and snagged a deer. Venison was added to the breakfast, and Joshua Leafmaster, their now named host, exchanged the pelt to make jerky and travel rations from the deer whilst the group heads for the mushroom caverns,  His son, Micca, has Maggie ready and attached properly to the cart, some fresh hay still being chewed.

It is a short trip to the mound where the cavern entrance lies, and Glori hands off a healing potion and two glowing stones for their underground sojourn. A few ribald jokes were made, although I do try at least to keep my games PG-13 for the most part. It is failing in this group.

The group decided on a party order and started down the caverns. A few dozen feet in, Harkin notices what appears to be a secret door. Carefully opening the door, they see a large cavern. Merk can recognize the smell of flying monkeys, a creature created by a witch of the west (yes, I had flying monkey minis, threw in an Oz reference [and there may well be an Emerald City somewhere!]. Mostly because one of the players really does not like monkeys and I have the minis for some reason.) There was a brown slime that attempted to drop on our valiant Halfling, but he managed his save roll. Not sure what to do with the now quivering blob, they left it along and continued in. Searching the cavern, they roust a nest with 2 of the little beasties. A quick round of combat, with Sir Rabbit cleaving one in half, the other a mangled mass of fur and feathers on the floor, leaves an even more foul stench. They then fed the brown slime the monkey remains. I did notice on one of the rumors card, a rumor of a woman who has a pet slime that can do tricks. Sadly the slime was left behind, slowly digesting monkeys. Searching the nest, they do find 21 silvers (based on the random treasure charts).  Nothing else of this chamber proved to be of any interest.

Continuing down the caves, another door on the other side of the cavern path is found. Quincy checks and finds no traps, so Sir Rabbit kicks down the door. And is promptly attached by several large but mostly nuisance spiders. It takes a few rounds but they squash all the little furry buggers. Here they find some of the mushrooms they need, and fill up a couple of the 5 sacks they are carrying.

Further down, another and empty cavern is found. I had one of the players roll on the random dungeon contents, and he rolled an empty cavern. Not even mushrooms for the picking.

Back in the main path, there are roots dangling from the ceiling. Most of the group is too small to worry about them, and Barnard managed to get through without entanglement. Our tall archer, Harkin, is not so lucky and gets entangled into the bloodtree roots. Fortunately Merk climbed up and managed to chew his way through them. A messy approach but apparently successful.

A bit further down they come to a 3 way intersection. Knowing the mushrooms they are searching for are usually near water, they choose the center path which has the loudest sound of water. Sir Rabbit failed the throw for a trap check, and rolling on the random trap it was an arrow. And it does hit the warier, but his leather armor stops all but 1 hit of damage.

They come to a rickety bridge spanning a tumbling underground river, the sounds of rushing water now filling the caverns. Merk and Sir Rabbit cross early, tied to a 100' rope that Quincy has. The bridge holds, and the rest of the group crosses over to the other side, with Harkin at the rear. I was rolling against strength basically and the bridge held. They may not be so lucky next time.

They turn left and find a grotto-like cave. No creatures or anything to attack them, but they do spy the ambrosia mushrooms along with some others. They all made their saving throws so put in masks with vinegar to cover the smell. The sacks themselves are oil-based and will prevent the aroma to escape. Unless one has a hole...

They manage to fill up most of the sacks but still have more than one to fill up. And this is where we left the session. I also gave everyone another 50 XP. This will allow them to bump 1 stat up. The next one I think is 200 XP but I will have to check.  I also think I need to make the encounters more difficult and challenging. We've also not kept the map on the table and no one is really tracking where they are going. It is a small enough dungeon/cave system that this is okay. Longer term we may want to see about someone mapping. I may still have them get at least misplaced a bit.

There is still a 2nd level to this dungeon, and that's where the rest of the mushrooms are at. And there may be other surprises.

Next session 3 of the 5 players will not be there, so we may do something else. I've sent out an email to the group but no responses.

Fantasy Trip Game - session 1

Realizing I just posted the end game, here is session 1. Testing using Trello for that game and the game recaps were there except for the final session, which I posted earlier then linked to that post from Trello.  Just to keep everyone guessing I suppose!


Having more than one book of the rules was helpful. Characters got generated, 2 humans, a goblin and a halfling. Not all the characters were quite legal but we fudged a little and adjusted as the rules got better figured out.

The group was part of a caravan and dropped off at the entrance to Edge City. Paying their silver to get a "passport", the wandered into the Broken Sword Tavern, a dwarf-owned establishment in an okay part of town. Drinking and eating, they were approached by Glori and her taciturn body guard. Sir Rabbit had flirtatious eyes and the stout dwarf eyed him back under glowering thick eyebrows. It was agreed that they would accompany her on a mushroom expedition for 4 gold, two up front and two on completion of their task. Glori left a sizable tip to help with the rather, err, messy eating habits of Merk, the Goblin wizard.

Meeting at the Northern gate, there was Maggie the pony attached to a small cart, with GLori and Hanarlig waiting for the day trip up to Hamor, a small hamlet next to some caves where the aphrodisia mushrooms can be found.

Once past the open farmlands and entering the woods, the group reorganized with Harkin taking lead, Merk peering over the edge of the cart and probably drooling, Quincy watching the back trail from the cart, Sir Rabbit I believe was walking beside the cart, and our woodsman Barnard walking near the front. Harkin noticed a couple and was weapon ready. The young couple indicated that they too were heading to Hamor and could they ride along? Suspicious bunch that we are, they were not allowed on the cart but asked to walk several paces ahead of everyone else.

Not much further, Harking realized there was an ambush waiting to happen (yay awareness skill!). Everyone got ready for the battle.

I did pick pretty poor combatants for this first battle - they were basically average human so their stats would be a bit lower. I did not want to kill off anyone before we even hit the eponymous dungeon!

The battle went fairly quickly. We do have to get used to the 2 phase method of combat. Move first based on an initiative roll, then actions based on highest adjusted DX down. And I need to figure a good way of displaying that info to help everyone as well as me.

Sir Rabbit managed to confront one of the ruffians, and Merk hopped out as well for the combat. Quincy managed to sidle around one as well to attack frm the rear (+4 to hit from the rear). Harkin was taking aim at the two ruffians up the road, and Barnard confronted another of the couple. Our stalwart NPCs did not do a lot in the first round: Glori is basically a city mage with no combat spells. Hanalig's first task is to protect Glori so he first got in front of her.

The players did some significant damage in round 1 to the assailants next to the cart: a short sword (I think - need to get that GM player card!) almost took one out, and a rapier to the back just about finished off one. A fireball also did significant damage to another. In combat, 5 points or more means that the one attacked is basically reeling and gives a negative DM on their next attack (and I need to dig into the rules to make sure I've got that right). So those two were out of the picture basically, and finished off with a coupe de grace next round. Meanwhile, the two archers in the distance were shot at and missed by Harkin, and they in turn both missed him. Arrows are stuck in trees everywhere.... Next round, there is some shifting about as the first couple of rogues are dispatched, and Hanarlig rushes to confront one of the archers. Basically blocking Harkin as friendly fire does apply in this game! The archer gets a last shot in and misses. No more combat so in round three, Quincy moves about to get behind one of the archers (I think - maybe I should keep notes about the combat). Regardless, all the assailants are killed by the next round, and there is all of 8 coppers between the four of them. I suppose if they were rich they would not need to rob!

That's where we left the game pretty much. This combat was low level just to get a handle on the mechanics. And also realize that I do not plan on handing out riches. Although who knows what will show up in the dungeon: I plan on using random treasure cards or rolls.

Notes for me are to get better organized with the cards, Next time there are attackers, I will be using random cards. And those tend to be tougher than average so it will be a challenge.

And I am still not sure if using real coins helps or distracts. My theory was that having the physical coins in front of you made it more tangible as to how much you really had. I'll have to see if I can make a survey on this to see if it helped or hindered.

Each character got 50 XP, so half of what they need to boost an attribute. My goal is to have them be able to add 1 point at the end of the game, maybe more. I also may see if we can do a bonus per player if they do something really good in character.

Session 0.5 - More characters!

I broke down and bought the SOLO supplement. I've yet to read it (got the PDF and the hardback is getting printed) other than a quick glance. I will need a small adventuring group, and as I really do like trading games for the baseline, and I need a ship & crew for a trader, I'm seeing about generating some Merchants. And as I had to come up with a trader for the T5 rewards, I am now working on the crew.

This one came from the RPG Suite as I went through that process. So meet our steward/broker/cargo master for the No Refunds:

Eaaia Wasaiea Oieei (Ewo) 757994, age 34, Merchant

Admin-1, Advocate-1, Deception-1, Diplomat-1, Electronics (Comms-1, Computer-1), Language (Anglic-1), Persuade-1, Astrogation-0, Broker-0, Drive-0, Mechanic-0, Steward-0, Vacc Suit-0

Ewo was born on Kimitri (A563788-C 0107 D'Arlee), part of a small clan of merchants. Growing up at the port, she picked up some smattering of various languages, the ability to at least function not too badly in a vacc suit and some rudimentary driving skills. Her attempt to enter college failed, partly due to her clan having little influence in the system. She took up the merchant life, first on her mother's ship then on a human ship.

Term 1 gave her basic training and a swath of basic skills. She was also involved in a legal tussle, and managing the books for her mother gave her the Admin-1 skill, and she was promoted due to that and her persuasion skills.

Term 2 she switched ships to become more familiar with a more human-centric crew. Unfortunately that merchant made some unwise decisions and had a very cunning rival. She still picked up Advocate-1 but there is a criminal syndicate added as a rival (quite possibly the same one as the adventurers in the last Traveller game encountered via getting kidnapped).

Ewo returns to college, but living the life of a merchant is just too much of draw. She got basic training for Astrogation, and picked up Anglic so that she is now quite fluent. She never gets her degree.

She returns to the merchants, in another human free merchant. Legal troubles abound, but she does manage to talk her way through things, picking up the Diplomat skill. Not getting promoted irked her, so she left, and with some of her ship shares, joined forces with the No refunds crew. She now has some roihoaaea in the game!

There are a few bugs in the RPG Suite software: she was not supposed to get a few of those benefits rolls, but I am okay with that. It gave her 3 ship shares. Once I get the rest of the crew up, we can figure out the shares and how the characters get paid.

From Deviant Art Aslan Sample

Solo Session 0.4 - 4th Term

After travelling about the Quadrant and meeting new people, Malik returns to Yllom a more worldly man and decides to stay in the journalism business. He barely survives again, and has yet another chance to bring down yet another political figure. I suppose with 60+ councils there must be a few bad apples despite Yllom's quite passive society. Unfortunately, not so lucky this time (and I also misread the last roll and don't think I took a +1 in one of my skills, so I'll have to look back and adjust one. Even with that it would have missed the roll I think). So, I'm going to assume investigate should not be adjusted as he failed. I think I'll add language 1 from 0. His journeys the last term should have brought him into contact with a lot of cultures and languages. But he gains yet another enemy, another political figure it would seem. And on the mishap table: forced out because of censorship or controversy. Apparently that political leader had some clout with the paper!  It would give Malik a +2 to get into another career, but at 34, and after his pervious term, Malik is now ready to explore a bit more on his own.

The only question I have: would he still get to roll on the advancement table? I am going with no as that is how the flow chart looks to act: mishaps do not let you get promoted.

While he did get through 4 terms, one of those he managed to lose a benefit. So he has all of three rolls on getting out of the journalism career. Rolling a 4, then a 3 on the cash table nets him Cr20,000. Rolling on the benefits table, a 5 yields INT +1. So smarter and wiser, but now unemployed and searching for adventure!

Malik Catillion, age 34, Jounalist, Senior Staff writer
699B96
Art (Writing 2), Carouse 0, Deception 0, Drive 0, Flyer 0, Persuade 0, Steward 0, Language 1, Electronics (Comm 1, Sensors 1), Investigate 1, Streetwise 0.

And wanting to hitch a ride out of the starport and leave his troubles and 2 enemies behind. He does have some contacts with the Antares Ship Builders and Trade Speculators group. Perhaps Lynwood Laux (the ship's captain of No Refunds will hire him on. That is the name of the captain and ship for the T5 book and cards I will be getting. Not really having a merchant character in Traveller, just my old Scout, I just made up some names and will flesh that out later)

Pretty sure I did not add one to any of his skills, so I am granting him another level in writing. That is how he made his living, after all.

The next step is figuring out how to come up with the random stuff. I may have to break down and get that SOLO book on Drive-Thru for some guidance here. But it was fun getting into a bit of a deep dive on a character generation and at least one more planet detailed out. I think I may spend a bit of next weekend thinking about a Class A Starport on a planet with 90 billion people: there are no lack of job applicants so probably little automation, lots of unions perhaps. And a large quantity of high tech imports to keep starship maintenance viable as per Imperial law. Plus it is a 4 day weekend for me, so yay! And happy early 4th of July everyone!

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