Character Challange 2022 6: Force Leader Ralphy Smoory, Insurgent

84A595, 5 for a male character. And I also just realized I'm not doing any aliens - I'll rectify that over the coming days, along with other non-Traveller characters. But I'm on a roll to see if I can create a high port full of NPCs. After I'm done with the challenge I'll try & do a recap of the station and the characters in it. A challenge within a challenge! Heck - any Fantasy Trip characters may end up residents of Windemere! Not sure why I am working so hard on that trade town as I don't really expect the players to stay there that long. I need to work on a larger base, but so far the characters have wandered about based on the quests I've given them. Though the original Dwarf smith, currently learning armor techniques in Edge City, does want to return to Hambor. Perhaps I need to expand that little town out a bit.

And in light of today being the anniversary of some heavily partisan activity, using the character generation from Adventure Gaming, December 1981, that has Rebels, Insurgents and Partisans, an NPC variant for anti-establishment types. 

While there are no entry requirements or rolls, there are three branches, of which each has its own minimum stat requirement. Our future RIP only meets the field command based on his endurance, so that's where we'll start.

Term 1, Rank 1, Recruit

Year 1: Brought into the insurgent training by his aunt, he starts off with basic training exercises. Bribery-1 and Survival-1 are apparently how to train as an insurgent!

Year 2: assignment - sabotage! not detected with a 6, so no need of a survival roll. He is also promoted to Rank 2, Recruit 1st class, and picks up a skill, vehicle, and takes Grav Vehicle-1.

Year 3: assignment - espionage! a 4 means he was detected, but a 9 indicates he was compromised and will have to change branches. A roll of 10 allows him to survive the encounter, and despite being compromised, he is promoted to R3, a section leader. He also gains a skill, gun combat, and picks up Revolver-1. 

Year 4: in support services, he is again embroiled in an espionage attempt. This time he manages to avoid detection but does not get promoted with a roll of 4. He does pick up a skill, Survival-2. Going with survival in this particular case also involves camouflage

Term 2, starting rank R3 Section Leader

Year 1: internal security. Barely passed detection this year, and with a 9, is promoted to R4, Force Leader. He picks up Forgery-1 as a skill. 

Year 2: intelligence gathering. Easily passed detection from those nasty Imperials and missed a promotion. He did pick up Bribery-2 as a skill, so knows how to grease palms! 

Year 3: internal security. He was detected! Bribery works - Cr6000 later and the Imperial "forgets" he ever met me! Meaning I do need to roll for survival. Rolling a 4 is actually less than I need, but there is a note about any service skill level 2+ allows a +1 DM, which would mean I squeak by with Bribery-2. At least that's how I interpret this. But barely surviving and having a Cr6,000 payment needed, it may be time for this young man to do dormant. There is no resignation from the insurgents as far as the Imperials are concerned. He did pick up Mechanical-1 this year, even if there were no promotions.

Year 4: intelligence gathering. The Imperium did not recognize him as a wanted partisan, and again he missed a promotion with a low roll. And even missed gaining any skills. 

Do I go for another term? The other Traveller characters are more Classic, so this guy has a lot more skills. Plus, a young (26 years old) guy would be good to have hanging around the station. Not everyone is going to be middle aged!

And actually, in re-reading the section on bribery due to being detected, there were insufficient funds to pay off the Imperial. There is something about Cr100/rank level but does not indicate how often this pay happens: per year, per term? If per year, then if I calculated things correctly, he only would have had Cr1,700. So he is now laying low at the port, taking on whatever odd jobs he can pick up while also scouting out the station, especially the Imperial wings (I've yet to decide if there is a Naval port, and/or a Scout port here. And if T5 rules, if there is a Noble presence, such as a consulate).

Force Leader Ralphy Smoory, Insurgent

84A595 2 terms, age 26

Bribery-2, Survival-2, Grav-Vehicle-1, Revolver-1, Forgery-1, Mechanical-1

Raised by a cell of the Ine Givar, all Ralphy has known is the evils of the Imperium. His Aunt formally introduced him to the clandestine organization. While he started in the field, he was compromised during an espionage operation, and moved to support. He learned some valuable skills, primarily how to survive on the margins of society, as well as taking advantage of people easily swayed by an easy credit. Ralphy currently works for Delgado Trading, one of the publishing suppliers to the DocuMat on the concourse. He often brings in the raw supplies for the physical book maker, as well as the data crystals. He spends a lot of is free time wandering the station and is often found near the Imperial Consulate. He comes across as someone holding back some strong anger issues, but rarely talks about his personal life. He lives in a small living space near the engineering decks. He gets an occasional guest from various freighters, and has been known to take off for several days before being seen again.

Character Challenge 2020 5: Investigator Pandra Glass Starport Authority Customs/Security Agent

 Rolls: A99BA6. Okay, keeping these dice! 3 for gender, so a big, bright male. What sort of career should this guy have? And as I am trying to fill out my as-of-yet-to-be-determined high port think I'll try the Cargonauts version of the Starport Authority. This one falls into the Classic mode of character generation: 1-2 skills a year with extras for commissions and promotions.

Being a big guy, and never having rolled up Customs/Security agent, we'll see how that goes.

An 8 ensures he meets the requirements as he also has a Dex & Int bonus, effectively an 11. They really like him!

Term 1

Survival Roll: 4 + 2 = 6, barely squeaking by. 

Commission: 7 +1 = 8, so he does not meet the high standards to get a commission.

Skills: +1 Endurance, and Liaison-1. Smooth talker, and he is working out a lot.

Reenlist: 5 is a barely a success. After that near miss in surviving, he was thinking about a change in career plans.

Term 2

Survival: 6 + 2, much safer this term!

Commission: 8 + 1, so just barely gets commissioned to Lieutenant 

Promotion: 5 + 1, so no, did not meet that requirement.

Skills (1 for the term, 1 for commission): Gambling-1, Recruiting-1. He is a poster child for the port authority.

Reenlistment: 11. The commission got his juices flowing, and the SPA likes how he did this term!

Term 3

Survive: 6 + 2, again a bit dangerous but not too bad.

Promotion: boxcars! 12, so rank 2, a Captain in the SPA Security Division.

Skills: Streetwise-1, Wheeled Vehicle-1. This term he was at a down port, and his security duties would often take him outside the perimeter where he learned to both drive the cheap port wheeled vehicles and face the mean streets of Startown.

Reenlistment: 11. Still juiced now that he made captain, and the SPA thinks he is capable of great things!

Term 4

Survive: 4 + 2! Something drastic happened yet our hero survived another term!

Promotion: 5 + 1 for 6, so no promotion this year. 

Skill: Brawling-1. Still on those mean streets apparently!

Aging rolls: he failed the dex roll, so A8ABA6. Still an outstanding physical specimen. 

He passed the reenlistment roll, but will he go another term? I think so - I'd like 1 more promotion and retirement pay may be nice. So off to the 5th term.

Term 5

Survive: 9 + 2 for an 11, a no thrills term.

Promotion: 7 + 1 = 8, still short of a promotion.

Skill: picking the personal, maybe boost our dexterity back up. Brawling-2. Guess he got into more fights!

Reenlist: an 8, so he can if he wants to. Let's see how those aging rolls come out: 9, 10, 9 - he ages gracefully! Yes, we'll try once more for that promotion and a bit extra retirement pay.

Term 6

Survive: 4 + 2 for just making that check. Getting too old for this shit, so he is going to retire at the end of this term,

Promotion: 8 + 1 for just barely a promotion. Inspector, Rank 3.

Skills: going with customs skills as I just realized I never rolled on that table. Blade-1 and Autopistol-1. The blade is a big utility knife, as in really big, and going with the autopistol is the weapon of choice for SPA Security.

Reenlistment roll of 5, so I can retire this term. 

Aging rolls: 11, 6, 6. So dexterity & endurance both take a hit, leaving this 42-year-old at A79BA6. Still buff but talks about his glory days at the local bars. 

Mustering Out

With 6 terms and rank 3, there are 8 rolls to be made. With a limit of 3 on the cash, and having Gambling, we'll start there.

• 1, 6, 5 for 2, 7 and 6. So Cr 3,000, Cr20,000 and Cr50,000 for Cr 73,000. Interestingly the security/customs people match the admins for cash, and the services divisions (ship services, port services, the people who check on the ships and sweep the floors) top out at half. 
• Low passagex2
• Gun - getting his service autopistol; he's comfortable with it
• +1 Education x2

Apparently, our customs/security person took a fair number of classes. Perhaps reading up on all the Imperial Customs Laws. Or he had a lot of downtime and took remote classes.

Investigator Pandra "Pan" Glass, Starport Authority - Customs/Security

A79BC6 6 terms Starport Authority, Customs and Security Division, Cr7,000/year pension

Brawling-2, Liaison-1, Gambling-1, Recruiting-1, Streetwise-1, Wheeled Vehicle-1, Blade-1, Autopistol-1

After 24 years of being in the Customs and Security division of the Port Authority, Panda Glass is ready to see the ports from the other side of the security cameras. He was often in the front lines when security issues came up, but often would be able to talk down anyone before things got out of hand. Between his liaison and recruiting skills, Pandra is a keen observer of humaniti and knows how to approach people and to get them to get on his side. A quiet man with an excellent poker face, he has a sardonic sense of humor that somehow puts people at ease. He is a master of trivia, seemingly having read everything under the sun. 

He is a frequent visitor at the DocuMat, often requesting books that need to be requested for from other systems. He is the high port where he mustered out, living in a small tube apartment that fits his needs for the moment. He often talks with Aidy and has noticed the sometimes quite unwanted flirtations of Sir Weura and manages to get the former Navy officer talking about his good old days as they wander down the concourse. The Lady Aidy (and just realized how silly that sounds!) is appreciative and they've become friends over the last few weeks.

His apartment in the living quarters section of the station. He is still living in the place when he worked, so the module he is in is mostly port workers, and his friends from the last year that he was working at the high port.

And realized I had missed a page (I hate doing these via PDFs!) and never rolled on the advanced education table. Well, he still turned out pretty good.

So far I'm managing to flesh out the NPCs on this station, and there are several adventure possibilities. Not sure what I'll generate tomorrow yet: depending on work I may have limited time, and may do another Fantasy Trip character for Windemere, as the characters in that game should reach there next session.

Character Challenge 2022 4: Verner Barrick aka The Doorman

Playing a Microlite Costumes game and this was the 60 point character I developed. First, he is a bit of a stoner/flower child as this takes place in 1985 in a slightly alternative Earth, in NYC. Not sure why all the games we've played recently seem to take place in NYC, but there you go.

Microlite Costumes uses a point buy system. It can be fast (like Classic Traveller) once you do it a few times. Using my 60 points, I started with the main power I wanted, a sort of Bugs Bunny-like portable hole. There was no exact match, so we combined the teleportation and phasing and made it a 30 point power. I can create up to 3 "holes" within visual range. They will last 60 seconds or until I cut them off. So, no opening doors into places I can't see (though if there is a window, I can see the inside at least).

Then I bumped up a bit of natural body armor for 6 points, giving me 2 points of damage reduction.

Finally, bumped my stats up to get to the 60 points. Stock average humans are 10 points:

• Strength is 14
• Dexterity is 21 (I wanted to be able to do flips and things through my portable holes 😁 )
• Mind is 16 (figured it took a bit of concentration, and I like to play smart characters generally. To make up for any personal deficiencies I suppose)

And done - Microlite is a micro-game in terms of basic stats and things. And oddly, a LOT like The Fantasy Trip, just different mechanics for combat really, and we get to use d20s. Of course, there are more details such as background. He's a guitar playing busker who really likes Dire Straits and lives in the 3rd box on the left in that alley over there. Oddly another of the players is also a very badly damaged street person (who eats a LOT), and another is a kind-hearted soul who we met at the soup kitchen, and has taken the other in. Or rather, has his parents looking after her. Our first session brought in the final player into the mesh.  We were about to face the first major challenge and we called it a session (I am the choke point for this group: I get up at 4:30am or so and get to bed earlier than everyone else. I need my beauty sleep!) We left on the classic cliff-hanger. It will be interesting to see how we gel as a group in combat.

But as to his actual background, he is literally a blank slate. He really has no idea who he is beyond his name, guitar playing skills and a very relaxed attitude towards the universe. I'm actually leaving that blank to confer with the game master: there could be some story element we can add that works in his universe. While nothing like the other player character has apparently experienced, there could be something in his background that is blocking any memory of who he is. Heck - maybe he is a reincarnation of Space Cat! He gets killed, and comes back as the cat next game. Perhaps he alternates lives: human, cat, human, cat. And human can't remember past lives. Anyway, me and my odd desire to somehow link all my game characters. I like having character hooks in the game world like that. The other street person has a bad background - from appearances she has been experimented on or something. She is also a 7 or 8 year old mind in an early 20s body, so that is disconcerting at times. The player is doing really well at channeling his inner 8-year-old I think!

Verner is in his mid-20s, scruffy looking. I hunted around and found an image I liked, so sort of sprung the rest of the character from that. 

I re-used my Costumes character sheet from Space Cat. Another player made it form-fillable, which I've not looked at to see. I just use Publisher to make this sort of thing up as I go along.

Character Challenge 2022 3: Sublieutenant Sir Wor Weura

Raw rolls: 86A99B. Dang - significantly better than I normally do. That B is screaming for nobility or Navy (bucking for those promotions!) And I also found a list of pre-career education finally, in a backup of my Traveller stuff. It was by Omar Golan-Joel, the man behind Stellagama: Revised Pre-Enlistment Options for Classic Traveller. And by Classic, he means LBB4/5 style character generation. There are several options here:

• College
• Naval Academy
• Military Academy
• Merchant Academy
• Medical School
• Flight School
• COACC
• University

Mostly taken from existing publications and summarized with some additions. But hey, at least I found where that medical school info was! Not entirely sure where I got it from, so I can't share it sadly. But with this (rolls a 3) guy's stats, and me just liking well educated characters, I think we can try.

Looking over the info, college has a good chance of success, and if I go through NOTC, can start in the Naval Academy or go straight to the Navy. Here's hoping my good rolls continue!

College

If I had an A intelligence, it would have been automatic. With a 9, though, I do get a +2 and with an 8 +2, I am successfully a college student! (which is also when, despite having the books for almost 2 years before college, when I actually got to play Traveller!). I succeed though barely. I did not succeed at NOTC, nor did I get honors. I did pick up Language-1 and Carousing-1, so I apparently partied way too hard in college (something I did not do). In fact, a roll of 1 for my education bonus means I did not pick up any additional education stats! Dude! He picked up Vilani to impress the girls with bad poetry.

Naval Academy

Now, I don't see a reason I still can't apply to the Naval Academy. It is just not automatic. and at 22, I still have time. So let me attempt that. I have enough social rank for a +2 DM, but did not need it as I did manage to get into the Naval Academy. And again, I barely succeed and only because of my innate intelligence gives me a DM. At least I do pick up +1 to my education, giving me a 86A9AB UWP. A college and a Naval graduate! Sadly, again no honors. But I do pick up Engineering-1, Navigation-1 and Ship Tactics-1. And I may try to get into flight school (it would have been automatic had I graduated with honors). Why yes, this is going to be a character who goes through 9 years of schooling before entering an actual career! Assuming I get into flight school which is only 1 year.

Flight School

I do get in on a roll of 10, and I also succeed with a roll of 7. I failed ALL the rolls for additional skills, though Pilot-1 is automatic if you succeed. I am still thinking too much partying for this cad. Hmm, yes, perhaps he is a foppish, entitled cad who is only getting by on his parent's money. Snotty brat, but perhaps the Navy can straighten him out! As now, at age 27, he is finally starting the Navy as rank 01, ensign! However, he did not make it into the Imperial Navy, but is a member of the Spinward Marches Subsector Navy (and only because his intelligence and education bumped him up from the planetary Navy). As a Naval college graduate, and a flight school graduate, and having a social class of 9+, he can actually pick any branch. Sticking with flight. 

Term 1

Year 1

Basic and advanced training. Yes, though having gone through theoretical studies, and the practical flight school, you still have to learn how things really work. He picked up Handgun-1 and Laser Weapons-1 (rolled twice for gun combat). Interestingly, it would have been the same had I picked the petty officers skills instead of the flight branch skills. 

Year 2

Managed to pull command duty (the 01 rank DM is offset almost by my social level; good breeding does tell). A command position during a year of patrolling. Survive with a 5, I actually get a decoration, my 1st MCUF. I am not promoted, nor do I pick up any skills during those long sweeps of space.

Year 3

I make command again, but on a strike mission! I barely survive with a 4, receive another decoration, a 2nd MCUF. I need to remember I can adjust my survival roll to increase my chances of a decoration. And flight has fairly easy DMs, plus I can add in my pilot skill as a DM as well. I missed promotion again, but I do pick up the venerable Admin-1 skill. I've become a paper pusher!

Term 2

Year 1

I am again in command of something, and on another strike mission. I'll take a -3 DM for my survival, then add in the pilot-1. I survive, and still just get another MCUF. However, box cars on the promotion roll means that someone noticed my actions, and I am promoted to 02, a sublieutenant!

And in reading the section for re-enlistment, so what was year 4 is really year 1 of term 2. Short terms are truncated. And I'll also have to make aging rolls at the end of this term as while this is only the 2nd term in the actual Navy, it is the 4th term in terms of experience. I am also on patrol again, and will again take a -3 DM for survival. I easily survive, and with the DM get a 4th MCUF. No promotion, I do pick up Grav Vehicle-1 so the patrol must have included some planetary action and I drove a grav APC perhaps. 

Year 2

I do not get a command position, and I am not stuck on patrol (same thing I discovered last year: I need to roll a d6 at the end of each year, and a 6 means I am in the same assignment). This is a cushy year on shore duty. No promotion, no skills, no life apparently!

Year 3

No command again and go to training. But nothing must have sunk in; while I easily passed the survival roll with a 9, a 5 means no skills this year.

Year 4

No command, and more training. I actually get wounded (rolled a 3 and that was what was required, but sadly as it was in training, no purple heart). I did pick up Vacc Suit-1 so I must have been paying attention this year.

And I failed the re-enlistment roll, but at least passed all my aging throws. For a bright kid, his Naval career was more of a bust. I've a feeling his attitude of entitlement did him in.

Sublieutenant Sir Wor Weura, formally of the Spinward Marches Naval Forces 86A9AB age 34

College, Naval Academy and Flight School graduate, 3x MCUF

Pilot-1, Language-1 (Vilani), Carousing-1, Engineering-1, Navigation-1, Ship Tactics-1, Handgun-1, Laser Weapons-1, Admin-1, Grav Vehicle-1, Vacc Suit-1

After years of feeling the world was his oyster, Sir Wor Weura found out to his dismay that it was, not in fact, all lined up for him. He partied far too much during most of his formative years, and though he passed college and the Naval Academy, there were a number of probationary actions against him. His adventures in the Navy, while barely competent, slowed down as the brass recognized that he was not capable of seeing beyond his immediate goals. While he started off with command positions, the last term was he was mostly posted as a staff officer, and he was dismissed at the end of his 2nd term of duty.

Mustering out, he managed only a low passage ticket and the Cr50,000 he had managed to save up before his parents decided that he needed to be on his own in order to figure out his life.

Now living on a high port, he spends his days wandering the concourse. He stops at the DocuMat almost daily and flirts with the data girls. His funds will run out before too long, so he is feeling his way towards being an engineer or otherwise helping should the Lady Prosperity need some additional crew on her next chartered trip. Though still roguish and confident, Sir Wor is also realizing that the universe may not always give him what he wants or needs. 

Sir Wor Weura

Character Challenge 2022 2 Senior Scout Lars Sebiin

Initial rolls: 747AB7, odd roll so male. Allowing 1 extra roll, initial UWP 777AB7. Physically perfectly average, but very smart with a high education, and smack dab middle class (such as it may be in the Third Imperium). 

Having all those smarts, looking at which careers prefer that for enlistment. Navy he would have a +3 total, a higher chance at both survival and promotions, Marines +1 to get in, and an edge for commission. And so on. Merchants gives him a pretty good boost on most things, as does the scientist career. And all the other possible career choices.

And I have recently picked up the Cepheus Deluxe book, I suppose I should go through that process. What is interesting about this version (and now how many versions of Traveller and Traveller-like systems do I have? Best to look away, look away) is that there are no rolls to get into a career. This version gives the player a lot more control over the character generation process. No survival rolls. No promotion rolls - it is automatic on even terms (and possibly by random events). In the end this does generate a Traveller-like character, but without that randomness, for me at least it leaves things dryer. There is a story in the random rolls to flesh out the character. We'll see if the random events can do the same sort of thing.

I've always enjoyed Scout characters, and while the intelligence and education seem to want this character to be a scholar, and as I can no longer die in the Scout service (the dump career for those who roll crappy stats in the past, with the high likelihood of dying to allow you to roll up something better!) we'll give that a shot.

First, we have homeworld skills. As there are 6 sets, I'll roll a d6 to see what sort of system we come from. A frontier world, and I'll choose Survival-1 as my homeworld skill. This also helps with the background: there were no real scholarly opportunities here, and we've passed beyond what this world offers in terms of education. As there was a Scout base in system, we're off to join the Imperial Interstellar Scouts!

You can also choose your skills rather than rolling. I'm going to do my house-rule and roll, but then allow to pick the skill. I can see for some players being able to entirely control character generation is a thing they would like. I can also see the same players generating a very small subset of characters if they played enough. 

It is also noted that the total number of skill levels is INT + EDU. For Brainy here, that is 21 total points. It also notes you can swap a skill for personal stat increase. Something to keep in mind. And you can also swap a benefit roll for a rank increase. Interesting and I actually like that.

Term 1: Scout (Rank 0)

Grav-Vehicles-0 and Repair-1. Repair is a combination of electronics and mechanical, at least in terms of fixing or hacking into things. 

Event: A rescue mission! I rolled an 8 for the 8+ on Engineering, so pick up both Engineering-1 and a contact. Note that engineering is back to the CT version, and covers jump, maneuver, power and life support. Though honestly, I think I do prefer the cascade version of engineering.

Term 2: Scout (Rank 1)

Computer-1 and Engineering-2. Looks like he has an aptitude for engineering. 

Event: Cybered. Cr6000 towards cybernetics. That is a new thing! There are 3 classifications of cybernetics. With a Cr6000 range, there are several possibilities. He'll get three cybernetic implants that fit into the Scout world as well as his intelligence:

• Internal OmniComm (a cell phone in his head) Cr100. Which seems really cheap even for an external omnicomm.
• Internal OmniComp (neural internal computer) Cr300. 
• Internal filtration system to protect from airborne toxins and pathogens. 

Term 3: Scout (Rank 1)

Zero-G-1 and Science-1. 

Event: Ambushed! Choosing to fight and actually manage to roll a 9, beating the 8+ needed. I get a +1 on the benefits roll - maybe I can get a Scout ship!

I can also pick a trait, and having the computer skill, choose the Hacker trait. It gives me advantage on hacking and breaking into electronic devices. 

Term 4: Scout (Rank 2)

Gun Combat 1 (and this covers all guns and bows; Cepheus skills are a lot broader than even Classic Traveller) and Pilot-1. If I get a Scout ship, I do need to know how to pilot it!

Event: Survey duty. Science-2 for my brainy Scout. 

Aging: on the bright side, aging is a bit different than Classic. Classic is an 8+ to avoid the effects of getting older, whereas Cepheus you roll 2d6 and subtract the terms. 1+ is no effects, so you can go through a few terms before getting hit. Though, as per Mongoose, you can get hit really hard all at once. But I succeeded on this roll, so as per RPGSuite, I aged gracefully this term.

Another trait: Rescue Specialist. Helpful for those having issues in zero-G.

Term 5: Scout (Rank 2)

Grav-Vehicle-1 and Gun Combat-2.

Event: Xenomorphs! Fortunately, I bumped my gun combat up as that added the +2 I needed to survive! That bumps my survival to Survival-2. 

Aging: 12 - 5 = 7, so still aging gracefully, Only 38 (and yeah, in college when I played a lot that was old. Now approaching 60, 38 was when I was actually in my physical peak as I was running marathons. Though I never did break 4 hours, I still completed a few marathons).  I'll go 1 more term to get an additional rank and its concomitant science skill, and maybe take a stat increase. 

And in re-reading the rules, I was only allowed 1 skill at terms 4+. Leaving the gun ones in there and removing the others.  

Term 6: Scout (Rank 3)

I pick up Science-3 as a term skill. And I pull back that Pilot-1 as the skill gained this term.

Event: Life event! I travel a lot between the worlds. Well, yes, I am a Scout! I can pick either steward or carousing. I can't decide: he is smart, so would he be a party type or pick up basic housekeeping? I can see it going either way, so 1-3 for steward, and 4-6 for party time! Guess he learned to blow off steam - Carousing-1.

Aging: 8 - 6 = 2, so just barely this time, but still aging gracefully. 

And a 3rd trait (yeah). This time picking languages, so he knows 3 other languages (helps that he is smart and has a built-in computer so in theory could just rely on that. This makes it more fluent, and dare I say, organic). Going with the primary Alsan language and 2 Vargr languages. 

And enough - 42 years old, and ready to go. I also get a retirement of Cr7,000/year. 

Mustering Out

Going to add one rank to get to Senior Scout. Still leaves me 5 rolls, and one has a +1. Wait - 6 rolls as you get 1 + the number of terms served. Bonus!

• Cash: Cr10,000, Cr50,000 on the 1st 2 rolls. Between that and my pension, think we've enough cash to sustain ourself just a bit. 
• Benefits: +1 Int, weapon (stunner), Scout ship!, blaster pistol.

This character ended up pretty good. There are several updates to how Cepheus vs Traveller works. Some I like, some I am ambivalent about, some I don't like.

Senior Scout Lars Sebiin 777BB7 age 42

Science-3, Gun Combat-2, Survival-2, Engineering-2, Pilot-1, Carousing-1, Computer-1, Repair-1, Grav-1

Stamina: 7

Lifeblood: 14

Hacker (advantage on hacking into electronics)

Rescue Specialist Zero-G

Speaks Standard, Gvegh (Vargr), Ovaghoun (Vargr), Trokh (Aslan)

Has an internal omnicomm, internal omnicomp and an internal filtration system for airborne pathogens and toxins.

Stunner (3D stun damage), blaster pistol (4D), Scout ship, Cr60,000

Cr7,000/year pension

Contact: from a rescue mission, Baroness Aidy Redic

Growing up on a frontier world, Lars rapidly read through the entire colony's library and surpassed his teachers by the time he graduated high school. He went to the Scout base, and had a solid career in the Scouts, gaining scientific as well as practical and a few illicit skills in his 24 years as a scout. While he had an occasional adventure as when he rescued a noble woman on a hunting trip, or fought off an alien attack, most of his career was spent observing and researching worlds for the IIS. Retiring as a Senior Scout, the service granted him a Scout ship to explore the cosmos in his own fashion. Sometimes overly confident due to his intellect not being challenged nearly enough growing up, Lars can often come across as a know-it-all. He will rarely admit he is wrong and often will argue until it is just easier to give up. Unfortunately, while not knowing all, he does know a lot. 

well, technically a Star Wars character but close enough for me

Character Challange 2022 1: Baroness Aidy Redic, Noble

 Rolls: 48244A, So, not strong, horrible endurance, not too bright nor educated, but a high social rank. Rolled even for M/F so going with female. And in looking at the raw stats, either nobility or Navy seems the best bet, though using Classic she is unlikely to actually live. And I'd hate for the 1st character of the challenge to die in character generation!

And got to thinking: I could run this same character through both LBB1 and Supplement 4 careers, then try some of the expanded careers. I have several Navy careers and noble careers she could go through. Funny - 1 character done 31 times for the challenge. But it would get boring after a bit. 

However, I'll stick with classic for right now. And as I do with my players, let me re-roll one stat roll. Anything is better than a 2!

With the updated rolls, we have our basic UPP as 48844A. So at least she'll last more than 2 rounds in a fight! Reviewing the chances of survival, nobles give her a 3+ vs the Navy's 5+. So going with the nobles from supplement 4.

Term 1

• Survival roll: 11. So nothing challenging here.
• Position: 9, so she moves up to Baroness. Now I am thinking GI Joe. And I never watched those cartoons but am vaguely familiar with them.
• As we got a position, seeing about a promotion. 6, so no. Needing a 12+ it is unlikely she'll ever get above a baroness. 
• Skills: we get 3 rolls this term, 2 for the 1st term, and 1 for the position. I'll roll once on each of the table she is allowed to get roll on.
• Personal development: 4 = +1 intelligence. 
• Service skills: 1 = gun combat. Picking rifle also gives her a +1 to hit due to her dexterity just making it. She often goes hunting on the estates. 
• Advanced Education: 2 = ship's boat.
• Re-enlistment: a 6 allows her to stay a care-free noble for another term.

Term 2

• Survival: another 11, so she is living a care-free life with no worries or stress!
• Promotion: 5, so not promoted
• Skills: back to personal development: 6 = Brawling. Which is an interesting skill for our budding baroness. Perhaps some of those hunting trips she had to defend herself from untoward advances. 
• Re-enlistment: 7, so our 26-year-old baroness can continue on.

Term 3

• Survival: 6. So a bit more threatening this term, but still easily survives.
• Promotion: 3. well, that was horrible, and perhaps she was acting out or something. 
• Skills: Service Skills, 1 = gun combat. Though not getting a DM for her dexterity, I think she'll go for the laser rifle. 
• Re-enlistment: 5. We'll go for 1 more term as at the end of the next term, those dreaded aging rolls pop up

Term 4

• Survival: 11, If only I could roll this well on the promotions!
• Promotion: 4. Magic 8 ball says unlikely,
• Skill: Advanced education: Pilot. Hmm, nice combo should she get a yacht.
• Aging rolls. Okay, this went bad, and she lost a dexterity & endurance point. No more terms! 

Benefits

• Benefit: High Passage
• Cash: Cr10,000
• Benefit: Rifle
• Benefit: Yacht

I was going to go with cash roll for that last roll, but that 6 means a yacht. So decided I'd allow myself to switch that to the benefit. As she can pilot it as well as any ship's boat it may have. And that gives me an idea for the character, and how she could come into play.

Baroness Aidy Redic, Noble, age 34 47754B

Rifle-1, Laser Rifle-1, Pilot-1, Ship's Boat-1, Brawling-1.

Yacht, hunting rifle, high passage, Cr10,000

Growing up on a rich world, Aidy was part of the on-crowd in the upper-middle echelons of her society. Spending years hunting, and learning to pilot the ships to ever farther hunting grounds, Aidy led mostly a charmed life. A bit brash, and on one trip she got in over her head, so she learned some basic fighting to protect herself. Her last big trip she managed to get sick from eating some of the wrong foods. She never fully recovered, and decided she needed to rethink her life a bit. Her mother, a noble, gifted her with the Lady Prosperity, a traditional type Y ship. However, after her initial travelling, Aidy was running out of funds for running a yacht. Letting the crew go, she is now docked at the high port of a distant world. Aidy herself, to pass the time while waiting, is one of the data girls at a data shop on the high port. She lives in the yacht, saving some living expenses but barely breaking even on port fees with her job. She may rent the yacht out, with herself as pilot, for those needing a private space or to get somewhere with a bit of luxury.

The documat on the main concourse. Offers electronic and hardcopy books, periodicals and news. This is from the Points In Space PDF. A bit old, but I figured as I did buy this years ago may as well use in various places! From the description:

Four years ago, Dinem Garle purchased the tiny, failing Bezeca Booking Agency, convinced that a datastore would fare better in its place. DocuMat still offers the same travel agent services Bezeca did (selling over-priced passage, courier services, and flight insurance) but, as Garle predicted, 91% of the shop income comes from the sale of data: news, entertainment journalism, and popular fiction. DocuMat ís most popular items are News Titles. The news lines combine daily reporting, weekly commentary, and holographic footage of everything from wholesale tragedies to team sports. News Comps. These are compilations, or comps, of news about a single topic, culled from all available commercial news lines and network wires, organized for browsing and comparison. You can, for example, choose to buy a comp including all coverage of a recent planetary election, or news of a specific sports team, or about a murder trial. Popular comp topics are prepackaged and listed on a display board, or customers can work with the datagirls to create unique ones based on key phrases. Comps are old by the byte, so very broad topics can result in an expensive comp (the news lines charge stiff licensing fees) but if a customer is concerned with broad coverage of a single topic, they're still a lot cheaper than buying all the relevant source titles. Assorted Periodicals: DocuMat carries all kinds of titles that are not news-oriented, from trashy favorites like True Spacer Stories to sober, brain-desiccating fare like the Quarterly Journal of Hyperspace Engineers. Garle focuses on Human-oriented stuff but carries a random mix of alien titles supplied by his primary license vendor and does his best to keep anything available if it ís trendy. Non-Periodical Titles: The lines between novels, plays, films, television, and computer games have blurred into vast spectra, but pure versions of each are still available. Dinem keeps a thorough stock of the kinds of overblown, lurid bestsellers that travelers like to buy to occupy them for long trips, from gratuitous sex and romance to gratuitous tech-no-thrillers and horror novels. Dinem seldom shells out the large credits necessary to keep current versions of academic titles available; celebrity biographies represent the extreme limits of depth, here. DocuMat sells most titles on data crystals or via direct download to the customer's portable. The charge is based on licensing fees charged by the publisher (Dinem is scrupulous about his sources; he tried pirating romance novels two years ago and got temporary blacklisted from the newswires owned by the same conglomerate). For pure news and many forms of periodical and entertainment, hardcopy versions are available, printed and bound smartly in a matter of seconds.

In truth, Garle hired Aidy after actually selling a somewhat lurid biography of her. She does bring in some occasional big purchasers, but they have a deal and he handles the legal side of the travel services she can provide. Aidy, though not as young as the other "data girls", is still on the front desk unless she is leading a trip. She is still trying to figure out what she wants to do in life. The Lady Prosperity is an expense she does not want to give up, but she is not sure she can afford to keep it. 

Traveller - Extended Starport Codes Again

Pretty sure I keep coming back to this every once in a while. But heck if I can find the post where I was messing with this. And there is an interesting discussion on COTI about the existing base codes. Got me to thinking yet again about something that should be useful fluff but also have some game mechanics associated with it. Not that I actually use any of these house-rules I play with when I actually run games: mostly use things at the plot requirements and I make up what I need before the session. Random things are handy for sparking ideas. 

Anyway, I can see have an extended port description. Something along the lines of ABCDE-F where:

• A = main starport (same as the UWP, unless it is ONLY a high port)
• B = port staff size: 0 = 0-9, 1 = 10-99, etc. (same as the population code)
• C = high port (A to X for none)
• D = trader information:
• A = multiple brokerages available, up to broker 4. Extra cargo roll per week allowed
• B = brokerages available, up to Broker 2
• C = broker available, up to Broker 1
• D = no brokerages available
• E = minimal cargos, reduce available cargo rolls
• E = Embassy population: 0 = 0-9, 1 = 10-99, etc. 
• F = port TL level (may not be the same as the UWP

This presumes that the starport population is distinct from the planetary population. And of course, it would not be Traveller without having a bunch of rolls to randomly fill out the info. With DMs based on other UWP info. 

Port Staffing Levels

2d6 x planetary population code x starport code modifier x importance^2 where if importance <= 0, make it 1:

• A = 100
• B = 25
• C = 10
• D = 1
• E = 0.1

Importance is not Classic Traveller, but a T5 affection. See this Wiki entry for that info. Interestingly the starport itself is part of the calculation for world importance. Regina, for instance, has an importance of 4, whereas Beck's world, a few parsecs away, is -3.

A world population of 7 on a port A world has a range (49...84) * 100 * (1..4) ^2 for 4900...134,000 employees. Honestly, rather than a random roll base the port population based on the system and trade routes around it. Gives a place for all those starport authority people to be emplyed at. Maybe we could redo the population code to be more granular, but I like using existing codes.

A class C port on a population 2 world of little importance (2..12) * 2 * 10 * 1 for a range of 40 to 240 port authority staffers. 

A class D port on a high population world of A and no importance is (2..12) * 10 * 1 * 1 for 20..120 people. 

A class E port on a high pop world of A would be (1..12) * 0.1 * 1 * 1 for 0.1 to 1.2 people. So, 0 to maybe 3 people if you round up. 

I think the numbers sort of work.

High Port

Normally the high port will be the same as the downport, and somewhere in the rules it does indicate that A ports almost always will have a high port, B probably will, and C is hit or miss. Some systems may ONLY have a high port, in which case the code may look more like X2Axxx-A for no downport, 10-99 employees at the class A high port for this TL A system. In MTU, I generally don't let 5000+ ton ships land on planets, but it all depends on the planet. A small planet with no atmosphere won't have the same gravitational stress. Military ships designed for planetary landings are of course an exception. A high port is better for those larger ships. 

Trader Classification

I'd fall back on the GURPS Far Trader book for a much better explanation (a great resource if you have it. While I don't like GURPS as a role playing system, though I've never played so that is not really a fair assessment, the books, at least for Traveller, are really great. Another interesting conversation on COTI on those books as well). 

While I don't have a formular per se, I think the start port type, importance and population will have an effect on the classification. I.e., an A port with a high native population and is important would be a A: lots of brokerages available, lots of cargos available. Are there pricing differences per broker? Maybe if you use the same one on multiple visits. Something to keep in mind: contacts are always important. A system with a low population and a cleared off section of bedrock for a port may not have much in the way of anything, and it would be harder to find cargos and no broker will be there as there is no profit to be had. Which makes me wonder about Petria...

Embassy

Per the rules, ports in the Imperium are technically part of the Imperium. Most worlds (with T5) will have some sort of nobility from knight on up on the planet. They actually get land fiefs, the size depending on a few things. But in the port itself there will be an embassy. The population code is probably too wide, but again, I like standard codes. A 0 may be no embassy staff present, and a 2 is almost a thousand staffers could be working there. I'd base this on a number of factors that really can't be part of a random roll. Such as:

• closer to a border probably has a higher staff count
• worlds well within the border and completely Imperial for centuries would have a minimal staff
• the larger a population, the larger the staff to handle any inquiries and whatnot.

The embassy is also going to have a Marine garrison. This is not part of the embassy population code, but figure a minimum of a squad (aka fire team), and up to company. Found this handy site for the US Marines and how the units break down. Having no military experience, I feel I am always just guessing at things. But in brief:

• Fire team = 3 marines lead by a corporal
• Squad (or section) = 3 teams lead by a sergeant (9 Marines)
• Platoon = 3 squads let by a lieutenant (27 Marines)
• Company = 3 or more platoons led by a captain (243 Marines)

And of course, Marines will have their toys and by armed to TL-15. 

Port Tech Level

Always contentious (per LBB2, any class A port can do yearly maintenance on any ship), I feel that the TL of a port does not always reflect the TL of the system. It will generally, though not always, be higher than local TL based on the port code. A vague house rule:

• A minimum TL A (decent jump and grav technology)
• B minimum TL 9 (early jump & grav)
• C..X will be the TL of the system unless the plot requires something different

Note that A & B ports do import higher-tech supporting equipment so that they can maintain higher-tech ships as necessary. The parts may not always be available (cue adventure time) depending on the world importance, trade levels and proximity to higher-tech industrial systems. 

I've also embraced the whole maker thing, essentially advanced 3D printers. While not at the replicator stage of things, an A port will have the raw materials and templates to create most parts needed on hand, a B port may or may not have all it needs, and good luck with the C or D ports. This allows lower-tech systems to maintain higher-tech systems. I also assume that the Port Authority moves its engineers around, so that those that learn to maintain high tech stuff get moved to lower tech worlds to share that information and skillset. 

There is an interesting conversation on COTI about lower TL ships in higher TL settings, and some, err, strongly help opinions. As it is a game, I feel what works in your game universe is what works. There is 1 poster there that is quite adamant about how he thinks things should work and contrary opinions are "using logic to come to the wrong conclusions". It is an imaginary game with imaginary conceits, keep it yours and do what you think works best for your games. Almost got into an argument with my group about something similar, and I just get tired of everyone complaining about everything and making fun of things they don't like. It is really, taking a step back, the kettle calling the pot black in a lot of these arguments. Back to logic and drawing the wrong conclusion. Anyway....

January's Character Challenge

I'll probably do this again this year, and I'll cheat again and have a few pre-made ones for those days I have too much going on to generate a character (Monday's are really tough as I get up, go to the gym, work and then have my Monday game night. No time for much of anything else). I'll try to do at least half Traveller, but as always a few other systems that I have will get used as well. I may even bring out Jungle Girl and her two dinosaur friends. I don't think I've posted her stats anywhere. And the Crimsom Skies character is ready to go. We're playing a supers game starting this week, so there will be a supers character probably Tuesday or late Monday night as that will be session 0.

As a reminder, I have my bibliography of Traveller careers in this post. I probably need to update that as I did get the Cepheus Deluxe book and need to add those careers to the list.

If anyone one has a specific Traveller character career they'd like me to roll up, please let me know. I will also be doing characters for:

• The Fantasy Trip
• Blackest of Deaths (yet to actually play this game)
• Delve
• Apex
• Microlite D20 games (for the supers game coming up shortly, and will probably post Athagio, the centaur I played, on one of those days I've run out of time)
• Brass Rings (we had a few good sessions for that and I may need an NPC at some point assuming we get back to that one)
• some of the zine RPGs I picked up in ZineQuest 3. Need to hold back this year - as enticing as a lot of those things are, I am just not using them. And while digital hoarding takes no physical space, it does take mental and emotional space!

Year in Review

Not going to do that. Though I am happy that somehow, I picked up 3 more followers this year. 19 people following me - woot! My influence is felt...nowhere. Not sure that that really means honestly: I follow a number of blogs but apparently do not have the RSS or something set up as new posts don't seem to show up anywhere that I can find. But it has been, erm, a year. Just like the year before pretty much. Working from home (and will be for the foreseeable future), getting way too many minis to paint or even store. and not having enough time to play games. I hope everyone has had a good year, and that this coming year will be full of fun and good times. And hopefully for me, less anger and arguing. I get tired of myself sometimes.

Traveller Solo: Landing on Mont (277-1106)

 The trip from jump point to Mont was pretty boring: Mont is not a well-visited system. While I tried the comms, there was nothing until we were almost in orbit. 

"This is Mont Downport. Please state your reason for visit." The voice was not exactly unfriendly, but there was a harsh accent of sorts I could not place.

"This is the No Refunds requesting permission to land. Free trader with two passengers for Mont. Cargo to be delivered per contract." I responded as well. There was no computer beep asking for the manifest or anything. Guess we were really at a sort of frontier system. 

"Permission to land, No Refunds. There is a single pad outside Chutaco ready for your ship." And then the signal was killed. Looking at the 3D globe of Mont, I could see the port was near the southern pole, at least according to the map we had in the database. "Captain," I called on the comms, "permission to land was granted. At the only apparent landing pad. I don't get any transponder or locational pings on comms."

"Don't worry, Malik. The map is accurate. Prepare our passengers for landing in less than an hour" the captain responded. I did as told, and watched the feeds as we de-orbited and made a spiraling approach to the south pole of Mont. Looking at the world real-time, the atmosphere seemed foggy or steamy as we approached the planet. I knew from the library it had a very thin atmosphere, and most of the world was a steam bath. The poles were a bit cooler, and as we made our final approach, I saw some mountains snaking off into the distance. We skimmed over waters of a bright blue and then settled on what looked to be cracked bedrock. Panning the cameras, I could see what appeared to be a large set of doors set into the mountainside, and a wide path leading from where we were parked to those massive doors. 

"No Refunds is settled down" I radioed the port. It took a few moments, and then that same harsh voice responded, "Welcome to Mont. Outer doors are unlocked, and we have a truck ready to transport cargo." I thought of the cargo we had, and groaned to myself. Ewo looked over at me and smiled. "Yes, this will be a lot slower than on a modern port. We'll be here a bit. After we get the passengers and cargo unloaded to this yeaoo kei, we'll see if Petria is worth the passenger fees we did not charge him." I was unsure what yeaoo kei meant exactly, but figured it was not a flattering term from how she said it.

The truck did rumble out to us. Not sure what powered it but it generated a lot of smoke or steam as it approached our main cargo hatch. We sealed the bay from the rest of the ship, I donned a vacc suit as we did not have any environmental suits, and directed the cargo transfer. My visor would steam over quite often. The workers from the port wore bulky respirators and loose-fitting clothes that sealed at the wrists and ankles. In the end, it was almost 2 days to get the cargos unloaded, and half a day with Ewo handling the legalities of the destroyed aromatics. The mountain entrance was the first of many heavy doors. The cargo warehouses were just large caves, barely smoothed out, to either side of the passage about 2 doors in. There were more cargo caves further in if they required more atmosphere. Inside the caves, each airlock increased the air pressure and reduced the temperature. The 4th lock in was a shirt-sleeves environment. There was condensation on the walls as well, though by the 5th lock most of the condensation was almost all gone. 

Seemed everyone here spoke with that harsh accent and tended to abbreviate things a good deal. Ewo told me it was because they were from Helfom. Usually over time most accents tend to disappear with travel, but I suppose that Mont did not get a lot of visitors, nor did the people often leave.

Apparently, we made a good impression on the people helping off-load the cargo. We got invited to a tour of Chutaco with a bunch of them. Once inside the final lock, the main cavern was easily 200 meters wide and almost as deep. There were branching tunnels, some large enough to fly a small ship through, others just a few meters wide and high. Buildings were built into the walls and reached bac into the bedrock. Stairs were everywhere, as were an amazing number of plants. Every you went there were plants. Ceilings and roofs had full spectrum lighting, and I was told the plants helped with the air and moisture content. Some of the more industrial sections of the city had huge steel pipes that led to the surface, giant fans circulating air. There was also a constant sound of fans and air moving, though it could barely be felt. The place smelled like a rainforest between the humidity and the plants. I did not notice many animals such as pets or wildlife. I found that several caverns had small herds of food animals. There was also a cavern set up as a beach, complete with sand and something that looked almost like palm trees. The water was pretty balmy, almost too warm for me.

 One of the most peculiar things though that there seemed to be a lot of heavy doors, very similar to airlock doors. I asked Mari, one of the people showing us about, why those doors were so prevalent. 

"History. We come from Helfom, and safeguards against vacuum are how you survive. Mont's air is a bit more than vacuum, but our greats and grandparents added the safeguards. One of the main jobs here is maintaining the doors and seals. Some of the minerals you transported are used for smoothing the seals, some for the air systems. Most of what you delivered we need for survival. The aromatics, though, were to make some things more bearable. We use those in the herd warrens a lot."

For a city of over 7000 individuals, there were a lot of warrens and some really interesting art, mostly abstract things that looked vaguely like circuits or some sort of geometric designs. And due to differing mineral compositions, the buildings were all various shades and colors, though often hard to see behind all the plants. Some of the caverns it seemed you could barely see the other side, and the ceilings stretched high above. Others were a lot smaller, and small shops were tucked away in odd places at times. I know my legs got sore from the walking: the surfaces were usually rock. 

The captain had moved the No Refunds to the nearby ocean, and they were refueling the ship. We found Petria and got him started checking for buyers. He managed to bring in Cr33,600 for the polymers, and a pretty amazing MCr1.125 for the machine parts - they were definitely needed here. Finally coming out well ahead. We're also getting his services for purchase, and then we're even. But he was well worth the cost of the trip.

We spent the next day rounding up supplies for the ship. There was not a lot available, and we'd be eating ship stores more than fresh food in the jump ahead. 

Tried to get a bit of the feel of Mont: large caverns with buildings built into the walls, plants everywhere. It is not a claustrophobic set of caverns - some are quite huge. Probably need more fluff, but as it is just me....

Next session: actually buying the cargo. And some work to look at systems nearby to see what we can buy low & sell high. Though we've used up half the week already. My guess is cargo loading will be equally slow as they have to use TL7 trucks and equipment: no grav trucks or sleds to aid in getting the cargo in. And I rolled decently for the polymers, and then really well for the advanced machine parts. Finally showing a decent profit! The group taking us about was one of the world encounters and gives me a +1 on finding cargo. Think I'll use that to allow me to add 1 to the d66 roll for cargo if I want to.

I neglected to do much on the approach to Mont: there is little traffic here, and the tech level, while it does have radio and early computers, does not have much in the way of automation. Not sure a single landing pad is enough but as there is little traffic, it may suffice. Of course, one bare spot is as good as another I supposed. Perhaps there will be a ship next to us when we're ready to launch.

And messing with maps and a scale image of the No Refunds on the single pad for Mont downport. Squares are 10' or so. Took a bit to cut out that ship image, but now I can use that in future map projects. 

And did the captain just get water to process for fuel? Or are there more nefarious things going on that he did not want me to know about? Of course, I am playing all the characters in theory, but really, I'm trying to tell the story, such as it is, from Malik's viewpoint. Perhaps I'll try a change of pace & run from another character next session.

Traveller Solo: In Jump To Mont

An expanded version of our in-jump report. Actually started this before re-reading previous posts, so it is sort of a retcon. But the next episode will be on Mont.

Laying in the jump plot and re-running some simulations through the jump computer, the captain was talking with our 3rd officer Dietgard to finalize jump. On his mark I dimmed the lights, and made the announcement over the internal comms: "We're prepping for jump. If all passengers would please stay in their cabins, we'll be transitioning shortly". Of course, there really is not much of a transition, and the light dimming was an ancient custom we just followed. The No Refunds has plenty of power, more than she really needed. Not that I asked the crew much about that: for a cargo ship we seemed a bit over-powered. Of course, there are places where that can come in handy, as we were at the edges of the Imperium and in the League of Planets. 

Being an Imperial citizen, the League was, while not quote demonized, set up as a place of questionable people. And, in reading a lot of the League literature, the Imperium is drawn up as this vast, impersonal and often cruel empire. The truth I think lies in the middle for both. And honestly, the people are no different no matter where you go. Having been around a lot more than most people, and being a reporter, I've seen the good side as well as the bad side of sophonts. And sometimes I wondered how the No Refund managed to keep ahead. A spaceship is expensive.

And with those thoughts, I closed up the external comms array boards and went to check on the two cargo bays. While I never felt the shift into jump space, sometimes cargo did shift about for some reason. Gremlins I've heard. I think it is more the holds getting packed badly. 

We have the two passengers this trip, the somewhat stuffy scholar Tea Kensi, and our hopeful broker Petria Klytria. I spent a fair amount of time working on the First Meal. While Scholar Keni seemed, ambivalent, about the meal, Petria seemed to really enjoy it, and was in quite the talkative mood.

"When I get to Mont, hope there is food as good a this, Mr. Catillion." He refused to call me by my first name. "Though I doubt it - along with a lack of brokerages, there is a lack of good foods. I've a good feeling food imports may be an excellent source of credits. To the good life!", as he raised his glass. The scholar merely raised her eyebrows at him. I am sure that was a human expression she must have picked up from somewhere.

After cleaning up, the passengers were back in their cabins, watching vids or whatever it is passengers do. I went back to my bunk, and started writing up more of our progress and stories. I had originally signed on to broaden my universe, so to speak. To write a story of the stars. So far it has mostly been manning the comms when in-system, and accompanying Ewo on her cargo trips. 

The next day while I was on shift, an alarm went off in the forward cargo bay. The emergency systems reported some sort of explosion. Checking my sensors, it was not on the insidients where I had placed some extra sensors, Instead, some of the exotic aromatics had apparently combused, and there was a small chemical fire. The automatics were not handling the blaze well, though so far it was limited to the single cargo container (rolled this random event for an in-jump issue, then rolled a 3 on my first attempt at fixing things) Worried that we could lose the entire cargo, I quickly brought in the captain and engineers. We depressurized the bay in short order, and the fire was out. 

After repressurizing the bay and inspecting the cargo, the aromatics looked to be a total loss. And despite a complete decompression, there was a most peculiar smell in the bay. But the container had managed to contain the fire, and nothing else was damaged other than some external smoke damage. The forward bay was equally undamaged: it takes a pretty severe fire to damage hull plating. The captain had me start researching the insurance issues on bulk cargos. (and in checking, there is a brief mention of insurance in GURPS: Far Trader, and nothing I could find in T5. And I know Classic does not have anything on it. There have been several discussions on insurance over on COTI I believe in the past, but I'm too lazy to dig those up. And besides, we're in a different political environment than the Imperium, so as this is MTU guess I can make up my own insurance mechanics. And not sure that goes in the same sentence as role playing games. Guess the old "accountants in space" meme may still apply to Traveller if you want it to!)

According to the League legal system, the shippers are responsible for ship-board mishaps and damages occurred thereof. For cargo that is damaged as a result of the cargo itself, transit fees are still paid and insurance, if applied for the shipment, will cover those costs. Legally, then, we had to prove that the cargo itself managed to self-combust and destroy itself. I dug through the sensor logs and could not find anything that would have set off the fire. The atmosphere and gravity logs showed no disruptions, and the bay was set to a lower temperature than the rest of the ship. Ewo reviewed my findings, added a bunch of legalize to it, and we hoped that would cover us from having to pay for 10 tons of now destroyed aromatics. 

We came out of jump about an hour or so earlier than optimum time and saw off in the distance Mont spinning slowly a few hours away. And now to find that class E port - no transponder or radio guidance.

Next post will see some planetary adventure or action. I really miss being able to play Traveller - my current group has just finished the game where I played a Centaur. We had some interesting post-play discussion on the game as it was the first time this guy had run a game for us. I learned a few things as well. Our next game is a supers game, though a bit low-level in terms of powers, but he wants us to start at level 4 or so. We'll have some experience under our belts. Next is a Star Trek game, then back to another supers game, continuing one we played a year or two back (Space Cat!). Then I may run a game but they are not really into Traveller, and it may be a Fantasy Trip game unless I can convince them to play. Either way I'll be doing screen sharing: if TFT then a hex map for when battles are taking place, if Traveller, then appropriate Traveller art and more

Merry Christmas Eve 2021

 Merry Christmas Eve to anyone reading this! And everyone who is not reading this. Have a little bit too much time on my hands as my child, who is 21 so I suppose not a child, is at his girlfriend's place, and my wife is at her mother's place. Just me and the cats for a while.

I've added some filters to GIMP, specifically one that has clouds in it. Just so I can add clouds to my maps (and these clouds are a lot nicer than the ones in Dungeonfog, so I may end up exporting those maps, and adding clouds and possibly other affects in GIMP. And me not an artist at all!)

This was originally generated in Fractal Terrains, then I added a grid in that software for the water using a hex grid with transparency I created a while ago, then exported that as a PNG and opened in GIMP. Added a very light cloud layer (you can just see it on the lower right quadrant; think I need to add more clouds next time), then mapped that to a sphere. Kinda like how it turned out! Not any world in particularly - I was just playing with all the software. One of these days I'll have the time & interesting overlap enough to practice a lot more and get better. I'd really like to get a lot better with Campaign Cartographer as there is a lot of power in that software as well.

What was really cool was that the projection from Fractal Terrains also adjusted the grid layer: the hexes were stretched to match the Mercator projection I was using. That is some powerfully interesting software!

Anyway, off to watch some sappy Christmas movie, and I hope everyone one has a wonderful holiday!

Windemere - Silver Pirate Inn

 Run by the half-elf pirate Nohemi Wirididae, the Silver Pirate is a relatively small tavern and inn facing the main square, on the main east-west road through Windemere. The inn has several rooms for rent upstairs, as well as a fairly large barn with stables for patrons. There is an old calliope against one wall, with one of the ex-pirates playing mostly sea ditties in an off-tune way. Inside, there are tales to be told of the Rainy City and Wex's Drift as well as of days plying the savage ocean currents. Occasionally one will hear rumors of Amazons, but the other Elves will quickly make a sign and change the topic of conversation. Many of the regulars here are from the Ocean and talk of the coastal cities they have been through, and the joys of the living in the salt air. When asked why they are here now, they look to the owner, Nomehi Wirididae, tending the bar. The half Elf has a scar across her face that disappears down her neck and she will scowl as the conversation quiets for a moment. The crew of her ship will stick by her, but she was banished from the open water to live her life near the desert sands by a curse. And then she took over Windemere Crossing almost a year ago. The tavern offers great drinks as well as some sea faring favorites. The near constant flow of merchants and caravans keeps her kegs full and spirits from across the world. While not as fine a wine selection as the Sarap Evi in Ceawla (see this post), there are some fine drinks and foods available. There is also a strange bird, a cacklemaw, that is kept behind the bar and fed the scraps. It is quite fat and unable to fly.

Playing with Dungeonfog which has some nice capabilities. And poking around, there are a fair number of asset packs that contain all sorts of interesting art. While I can make battle map style & size maps with Campaign Cartographer, this is a more paint-style editor, so it makes it easier at the expense of a lot more control. It is fun to mess with. Added a dirt trail to the outhouses (1 square rooms, and yes, there are toilet seats in the art. Hey - alcohol is always just rented!)

I've also thrown in references to a few other Kickstarter products I've backed. Figure the pirates would know about the sea places. Though I neglected the Flotsam Fair which is also in the sea. I keep trying to make a more living world but have yet to really get good at it other than in my head. Eventually I'll get to use all, or at least most, of the stuff I am getting. And in the meantime, I do enjoy reading them as they do spark off ideas. In fact, going through a book of rumors & it had some things I can toss out there. And the Phylactory has a fun adventure in volume 1 (and yes, I have all the ones they have made so far in print). And as I think I noted in this post, I have been using a few of the random books to have interesting random things. One of the players says he actually likes it when I open the book & have them roll for me to see what happens. It does make it "living" in the sense that I don't control the entire world. 

And hopefully I'll have time to continue the voyage of the No Refund this weekend. My Traveller posts tend to be the ones that are read the most, and this did start as a purely Traveller blog. And even though blogs are free, I just don't feel I need to have that much of a focus on just one thing.

Mini Interlude

 Decided to go ahead & get the 1/1000 scale lab ship. It was both more expensive and larger than I thought. But I figured, hey, Christmas. May as well get myself something (as most of the rest of my money is going to home repairs - yay septic systems!)

It was from Shapeways (search for Traveller RPG - there are quite a few out there, including the Scout & Marava class trader I already had. Also in 1/1000 scale). Of course, I have a LOT of space ship minis so really need to get back to face to face or something to use all these things. As a matter of fact, backing the I-have-no-idea-how-many-I've-backed Ryan Wolf's latest Kickstarter for another ship & poster that I may never use, but will still enjoy nonetheless. And who knows - perhaps I could use a huge passenger liner or stealth ship! (Stealth in space is an interesting concept with some very heated arguments at times!)

I've also painted a couple more minis, but not really all that happy. Good enough for playing, and that's good enough for me at the moment. I am getting better when I take my time. Even added a bit of moss to that stone wall. 

And we've a short-run game going one while the anthropomorphic game is on a temporary hold (work interfered with gaming - the nerve!) Playing a microlite version of Crimson Skies. Oddly we all decided to play women in 1935, part of the Banshee Squad. We had a really fun first night, and our next session will be a bit more sneaky. Fortunately there are "jink" points and I used them all to recover from some pretty horrible rolls while attempting some aeronautical feats. But we truimphed. I'll see about posting my character at some point (possibly save her up for January's character challenge if that happens this year. I think it was January!) But she is based on this picture though in-game she is about 20 years older. This was her in her prime:

Like a lot of my characters, rolled a die and came up even for female. She has an interesting background that has sort of already played out a bit in the 1st session when she threw an ice cube at a rather menacing Russian. Who, being 1935 and male, did not want to start a fight with a woman. 

Fantasy Trip: Continuing the earlier game

 Work schedules can be rough: my Sunday group, in which we play The Fantasy Trip, alternates every few weeks as to who is running the game. For a new GM, he is doing really well and we've had some great adventures. Even more fun, it is all taking place in an expanded shared world.

Unfortunately, he has been working way too much as of late, so we're switching back for a bit to me running a game. Which is great as I've finished (with a thud honestly) running the Apex game. Sadly, only one son will show up, so the role playing will be all that more challenging.

I had started an adventure to bring in a new character as the werewolf is now a zombie werewolf being ridden by the Goblin mage, the Runt. I'll just rework that, but I had a plan with props and everything. I spent a couple hours Saturday doing some prep work: re-reading where we left off, figuring out a possible adventure, and then digging through the minis to find some that will work as well as spark some ideas. I found a good map and printed that out, as well as hand-making a different map on a large sheet of crinkled shipping paper. Then used a wax seal to seal that up: this will be something they find in the building.

I created a character around a mini I have (and did not paint anywhere near the image below). A grump bee-keeping Druid who lives in the southern Kalor desert, just a bit north of Windemere. He goes to town with his honey to trade and pick up any other supplies he may need, but generally keeps to the ruins several miles north of my little trade town.

Printed out a Dyson map with three levels on some tabloid paper, made some notes in the margin, and used the 2 volumes of Delve magazine for some random things. The map is keyed as D1/4 for Delve 1, page 4. I'll roll the stuff up when they get there. I'll be doing some random monster rolls though I did pick up a few I did want to have in there. Gathered up the minis and put them in a box, prepared some pouches with the treasures to find, and have some general hand-written notes. I may bring some additional random books and decks to the table just because I have them and really want to use the things I get.

I'll also be bringing back the sister of one of their early foes: Tressa Mountainsunder, sister to Vakkekara Mountainsunder. She was a magic user that used eyes to spy on things as well as portals. Unfortunately, they managed to kill her off before she could escape through a Gate. It was planned to flesh her out more and make her a long-running thorn in the adventurers lives. But there are more gates around, including one in the current adventure. The idea was that the new character was going to have fallen through a gate by accident and Eriznock wants whoever is inside that ruin, disturbing his bees, out of there. In fact, I'll have him give the adventurers a couple of healing potions and whatever non-gold treasures they find to find the place. He is a Dwarf, and still loves his gold. Just that he now has his bees make their own liquid gold: honey. Yeah, I see what I did there!

Finally, I am bribing them to show up and made some sweet potato rolls. Very similar to Cinnabons but with sweet potatoes. I did mess this batch up a bit: forgot the tablespoon of oil in the dough and forgot to add the pecans to the filling. I just stuffed the rolls with pecans and will hope for the best. The father really looks forward to playing, as do I. 

Post game recap: well, things took an unexpected turn. They both seemed to like the random aspect of exploring a bit. Unfortunately, the 1st encounter turned out to be a desert lion! Oddly I had a lion mini already on the table as it was a stand-in for the Lamia. And I used the lion card from the Decks of Destiny so had the stats all ready and everything. The lion attacked their guide, who did manage to get one bow shot off before getting swatted by the creature! It almost killed her despite her leathers but fortunately I only rolled a bit below average for 2D of damage. The rest of the party, with the exception of Nova moved in to attack. As The Runt and his zombie steed/werewolf actually did more damage, the lion turned on them the next turn, and did manage to finally kill poor Agaric. Who was already dead from the last game, but the Runt has this zombie ring he found...

After finishing off the lion, I was asked if they could make a zombie from the lion. I now realize that this zombie ring needs to have some limitations. I decided that they needed to be sentient to become a zombie. I may have to do some additional adjustments so that the next foe they kill does not become a zombie!

There was a fountain in the corner. Using the Delve book, it was an illusion of entrails in the glowing water, and the 1st bladed weapon would become a +1. The Runt stuck his finger in, nothing happens. The Goblin Mage, not deterred, jumps into the fountain. He does have a pair of kitchen knives, so the 1st one is now a +1 kitchen knife. Finding his blade is now sharper than ever, he shares that with our rogue, Crut. Who has managed to lose not 1 but 2 magical blades due to critical fails! He quickly stirred his blade in the pool. No affect: it was only the 1st bladed weapon. 

Meanwhile, Nova had done her physicking for Sonji (who does have a backstory), and they are off exploring more of the building. The next room they explore I roll a humanoid and a beast: beast was a snake, humanoid a wizard. I used the Decks of Destiny wizard cards (hey, twice in 1 game using those decks!) and have a player randomly pick a card. He turned out to be a 40 point wizard. The snake, Sam, is now a familiar. He was preparing to summon a Myrmidon but I had a positive reaction roll to the party as well as the group tried to talk their way out. A bit of discussion (and a hoarse throat from me as I tried to do a deeper Dwarf Wizard sort of voice) and the wizard and snake (the snake watching Crut very, very carefully) left. 

They climbed up the stairs to a small watch tower, all of 10x10 feet or so. Putting 4 minis in that space is interesting. All that was there was a lantern. I had the players roll the dice from the Delve book, so they now have a lantern that has a 80' radius lighting effect, as well as being able to detect traps once per week. And it is pumpkin shaped. They also saw the Dwarf wizard stomping off across the dunes, upset that he could not delve with the group as he wanted all the gold. The snake was still watching Crut, coiled on the wizard's shoulder. 

The next room was an L-shaped room back on the main floor. Rolled nuisance creatures - 6 scorpions. Now normally these are literally just nuisance creatures: both Crut & the Runt have magical armor that protects more than the creatures can pierce. Yet I still roll all the attacks, and just before I roll the one for Crut, I said the only way they can get hurt is if I roll triple damage. So of course, I roll 3 1's. Triple damage. And I roll high for that damage, which even taking off his armor almost kills poor Crut. And he is one of the longest lasting characters in this game (or several games now). Fortunately, that was the only critical roll I made, so they did kill off the scorpions, Nova healed 3 of the damage points, and using the healing honey from Eriznock, he got a couple more points. So now half the party is already damaged a bit! I will have to throw in some healing potions in the remaining rooms perhaps!

Anyway, I'll be poking around more of my random stuff and put in more interesting stuff. Just glad I am using some of the way-too-much-stuff I keep getting more of. And even used some of the minis! and of course, there are still more minis on the way (200+ from Blacklist Games assuming they don't go bankrupt and the minis, now in Quartermaster's warehouses, don't get sold off elsewhere to pay off debts! and also the Nord minis, and some interesting SF ones are in the mail now, and fun Centaurs...and I did order more paints so there is no excuse to not be painting more!)

Hailing from the desert Aster Clan, Sonji grew up in the Kalor Desert, learning the ins and outs of living in the desert. Her clan wiped out by a roving ogre raiding party, she moved to Windmere. Knowing little else, she offered her services as a guide through the desert. Eventually she joined the Guild of Feathered Guards, giving part of her fees for guild membership, but also getting a place to stay when in Windmere. She usually takes groups along the Trail of Lost hopes that winds through the desert, passing through Ceawla on the way to the Elemental City of Athukthad. She is taciturn, does not talk about her past, but is quick to defend her charges. She can also shoot her bow twice per combat round with astounding accuracy. Between the high DX and the missile weapon skill, she only misses on critical fails for targets in range.