Tryonus - Darkside Ski Resort

 Being a tidally locked, rich world with a standard atmosphere and a smaller gravity, Tyonas sports one of the Leagues premier ski resorts. Rivaling those even in the Imperium, the Darkside Ski Resort sits on the dark side of the terminus between the habitable and frozen Dark Side of Tryonas. Perpetual twilight is off-set by the skiers personal drones: each skier has up to 3 drones that both record their epic ski runs as well as provide light and directions. These drones also serve as the chair lift and rescue vehicle: skiers are taken to the top of the mountain via the grav drones kilometers from the chalets and their soaking tubs.

With a  lesser gravity of just over .7G, the jumps go further and land softer. 

The drones are modified grav cycles, with additional AI to follow their charges. Complete with a comprehensive GPS system as well as Lidar to verify snow conditions, these large drones carry two additional drones for additional lighting. 

With temperature perpetually at -8 degrees Celsius, and the winds from the temperate zone creating fresh drifts and powder daily, no run is the same twice in a row.

Additionally, there are several small huts available throughout the mountains for those who may wish a more private interlude.

Rates vary based on the package, from the deluxe personal habitation that can comfortably sleep you and up to 11 of your friends and family to the honeymoon cottages. There is also the Grand Palace Hotel, a 5 star hotel and restaurant with a variety of rooms and suites available. There is also a credit exchange office to convert Imperial credits to local currency.

Some potential ways to use the ski resort

• hired to follow someone to see who they are meeting. The slopes and private huts make for excellent private meeting places.
• pure rest and recreation - what could go wrong?
• avalanche! was it natural or an overly ambitious plot to kill someone?
• your broker is on vacation and you need to meet her here.
• your cargo needs to be delivered to one of the larger huts on a distant mountain. The law here does not permit personal vehicles to stray from designated flight and travel lanes (to keep the views pristine as tourists drive the economy). You will need to rent a drone and use it as a sled dog to carry your cargo. To a very distant research hut days away.
• a drone has led a skier to a dangerous place and the players are the only ones near by. This is where the Mountain Environment supplement could come in handy

Tionma - God of All Living Things

 Tiomna is the God of All Living Things. With Blizria, the Goddess of All Demons, he is the father of Tona, Goddess of the Lesser Creatures (explored a bit here) and Tinma, God of Non-Living Lives. He probabkly has a a few other children, either via mortals or other goddesses. My pantheon was limited and based on the miniatures I was getting at the time, and there is no reason there cannot be other deities out there (in fact, there will be the Silver Lady from a friend's homebrew at some point I am hoping!)

Tionma, as with all the deities, can choose any form they like. He is most often associated with that of a young man, a crown of stars across his brow, and raven wings. 

Being the god of all living things means he also sees all living things when he chooses. Having a wandering eye, he is the father to dozens if not hundreds of half-godlings across Cidri. Some know their father, most do not. And often they posses no godly powers other than an affinity for life. Most would be considered charmed though, and good fortune does seem to smile on them. Though some seemed cursed, especially when Blizria finds them: their lives seem full of imps that cause nothing but minor problems.

Tionma also recognizes the full circle of life, and has no qualms in culling the sick. He often takes on the appearance of Death itself for those he has favored or despised. He wanders the world, far from the planes of the deities, and often can show up as a peddler with charmed tokens to aid those he wants to, or harm those he dislikes.

One of his favorite forms is that of an old man and a travelling bar: a large tent where he can create small meals and share his souza, a drink from the dream times to share in his patrons dreams, and to help them in some way. Or to punish them depending on his mood and the person. 

This "pop-bar" has mystical signs on it, and the smell of fresh food cooking. It will often show up when a person is unsure of what they should do, and as they drink the souza they will fall into a deep sleep and have dreams that Tionma shares and can direct to aid that person. It can show up anyplace but cannot be found again after the person awakes, usually in their own beds or campsite. 

And yes, the mystical pop-up bar is a series I just finished, and enjoyed. About a 500 year old person trying to assuage 100,000 grudges to save her unborn child from a cycle of painful reincarnations. It told the story over 12 episodes, which was really good for drawing out the past and how it fit in the present. It allows for great character development that you cannot do in a single 2 hour movie. And it ended with a complete story of redemption and hope. I thought I'd try to squeeze that concept into my world somehow. 

And realize I may want to see if and how we can use these deities in games. What's the use of having a lot of background information if it never gets used? In using the pop-up bar idea and his other forms, the characters could:

• be in the wilderness searching for something or someone and come across the bar. Tionma will give the characters dreams to help them know where they need to go
• the pop-up bar could be in the middle of a settlement or city, an innocuous tent with the sounds of fresh meat sizzling on a grill and an old man humming to himself. If they drop in, they could receive a token for good luck: lets the player re-roll 1 die 1 time.
• could be a patron: an appearance by his younger form and asks for the characters to go on some quest
• an NPC may remember this pop-up bar and how good fortune came his way. the players could see about a quest to find the bar. 

And what sort of temples would a god of life want? In my early charts, Tinma, his son via Blizria, is the god most druids tend to pray to. Tona, his daughter, is the patron goddess of female wizards and magic users (I had just bought some female wizards at a guess!). His temples would be full of life: both animal and plant. Large and small statues celebrating life. Sacrifices would be non-living things: jewels, precious metals. The clergy may be getting rich off of this but as long as they do no active harm Tionma seems to not notice. Some temples may just be waiting for a skilled thief. So some additional ideas:

• you are getting paid to find the thief who made off with a substantial amount of gold from the temple
• there are rumors of an abandoned temple of Tionma that is still full of gold and jewels. Perhaps guarded by large predators. Or perhaps not even abandoned but used by one of Tionma's off-spring, one who may have some god-like powers or spells.
• And if there is a character who deals with demons or imps (which is always a risky thing in The Fantasy Trip!), perhaps Blizria via an avatar wishes the group to do something to one of Tionma's temples: rob it, desecrate it, or take out the clerics
• a temple has been desecrated and needs to be cleaned up. The local clerics will pay very handsomely for that.
• a temple has been getting too greedy and affecting the lives of those in the neighboring villages. The characters are hired to "talk" to the cleric in charge. There could be hints from Tionma himself that this is a good thing to do.

And finally, in looking over some of my other posts, I realize there are no real evil deities. I tend to live in a PG-13 world and want just the good things, but I think I do need to have some evil in my world for the characters to fight against, or be a part of if they want. Part of this was when I finally started playing this as an RPG, the group I was GMing for was a father & his children. So I kept it well within safe limits, especially as one was a girl maybe 8 or 9 or so. And the father is both very protective and very large, but a good friend and I did not want to do anything that would upset anyone.

But the other group I've played with are are adults, and most like a grimmer game. So I'll see about something a bit darker perhaps in the future.

TFT: Healing Spells

 The Fantasy Trip is a pretty lethal game. Healing is not as easy as taking a nap and waking up, refreshed from horrendous wounds. Without magical aid of some sort, wizards can restore from the fatigue of casting spells at 1 point for 15 minutes of resting. Physical wounds heal at one point every 2 days! 

There is the physicker who can heal 2 points after the battle, and the master physicker who can heal 3 points. This assumes they are carrying around their medical kits, but that is a safe assumption! 

There are healing potions that heal 1 point of damage. I have my version for my group that consists of a d4 in a little bottle I found, the "big boy" healing potion that heals 1-4 points. I like to watch them shake the bottle and roll out the die. 

A lot of RPGs have your cleric, with the laying on of hands. The Fantasy Trip has no classes other than fighter and magic user, and all those do is adjust how much skills or spells cost to learn. There is no laying on of hands as per the paladins in DnD. I have to say that I do like the simplicity of the rules a great deal.

Working with a friend of mine to translate his priest into the Fantasy Trip. And while we can play around with the stats, skills, spells, weapons and armor, we wanted to have a way to lay on hands for healing.

I found this home rule at this site (inthelabyrinth.org) and tweaked it a bit.

Laying on of Hands Healing (IQ 12) will heal up to 4 points of damage for a cost of 3 ST from the user. However, as this is a blessing from your deity of choice, we're using a variation of the to hit rolls:

• roll 5 and it only costs 2 ST
• roll 4 and it only costs 1 ST
• roll 3 and there is no cost to the cleric

Laying on of Hands Major Healing (IQ 15) Will restore up to 8 points of damage; 2 ST is restored for every 3 ST put into it. Depending on the roll:

• roll 5 and it only costs 2 ST per 2 ST healed
• roll 4 and it only costs 1 ST per 2 ST healed
• roll 3 and there is no cost to the priest

Now in my pantheon, I may use this for the paladins or clerics I am working with. So far I've used enchanted weapons which are entirely within the rules. I've also got a DnD character we've moved to a microlite game (see this post) I may get around to converting him to The Fantasy Trip and use as an NPC.

The priest's weapn of choice is a pair of matching great hammers. These are blessed (aka enchanted) to do 2d+3 (vs 2d+2) damage, and also have a +1 to hit. I am also thinking about making them contain powerstones that can hold a 3ST so that in theory he could do 2 healings a day without cost. While I don't think this would unbalance the game, we're still discussing it. I like the lethality of TFT: it makes players think a bit more. Or should, but since creating characters is not complicated...

In the end, I think the costs work well and don't break the idea of the Fantasy Trip, but also allows for some blessings if the player rolls well.

Tryonas (League of Planets)

 Tryonas, a tidally locked world in the D'Arlee Quadrant. A rich, non-industrial world with 2 gas giants, a thriving belter population in the belt, and home to the rich as well as poor. There are many "vacation" homes here for the rich from Krim. While Krim is quite the thriving world, with high technology and a thriving economy, all the cities are covered or underground. Though the available land is limited, the fresh air and open skies bring in many people from neighboring systems. The Shadowside Ski resort has perpetual night, perpetual fresh tracks, and enough light to seem as bright as Brightside.

I'll have to generate more details later, but at least I have some images. And I like Brightside and Shadowside. 

Patron Encounter: Vax Datas CEO of Psziz Autonomous Autos

 Noble / Executive    Required Skills: Computer, Investigation    Required Equipment: None

System Requirements:  High tech (TL B+), High Law Level, Moderate to High Population

Target group: traders, 2-6 players. Rewards could be adjusted for non-traders: substitute a military vehicle perhaps as the reward for a more mercenary group

Players Information The group was beat to the sale of a lucrative contract for shipping  autonomous vehicles to a neighboring system at a huge profit. The CEO, Vax Datas, brings the players to his expansive private offices to proffer a deal that may even be better. He will give them up to 4 vehicles, and, depending on how well they do in their job, fill their passenger roster with high passage-paying sales team to go to the next system to start a sales group there. 

The job: fearing that a rival company is doing industrial espionage, he would like the group to gather evidence. His legal alternatives are slim: the high law level is working against them with a large set of laws limiting access to other corporations, and needs a group that is unknown to the other company. There is a safe on the 33rd floor of the office that has the information he needs.

Referee's Information

1. All is as it seems: there is industrial espionage, and the safe does have physical evidence of this. 
2. There is no evidence in the safe, but a more careful analysis and searching will turn up evidence. The reward will be higher if the players find this other evidence.
3. The safe only has the normal legal hard-copies and no evidence. There is no industrial evidence.
4. The safe actually has plans for the rival's vehicle, and Datas is performing his own industrial espionage. How the players handles this should provide a number of possible outcomes. 
5. The safe is empty and is actually a honey-pot trap: the players will be captured upon attempting to open this. There are larger plans between the companies and they have become pawns in the game.
6. There is no safe. Nor cake.

Other information: being a high-tech system, there will be all sorts of high-tech security devices. Due diligence before attempting any sort of break-in should be taken: floor plans, alarm systems, guard routes, etc. The high-law level also means probably jail time should they be caught. 

SOLO: Still on Krim 246 through 250, 1106

 The executive, Vax Datas, leaned back in his chair, looking over his entirely unnecessary glasses at Eow and myself. "It has come to my attention that Sprockets has some deep agents in our corporate hierarchy. While we are doing our own due diligence, some hard evidence of illegally tampering with our employment server, RUDI. While we cannot be involved in anything illegal, in exchange for the evidence, we feel that there may be a reason for a significant remuneration." He continued to look at us over steepled fingers. I looked over at Ewo who was calmly returning the man's gaze, and with a quick nod of her head, she replied "I'll take that under consideration. Let me confer with my colleagues and we'll be in touch." She unfolded from her chain in a graceful move and started to the door. I jumped up after her.

A bit later in a cafe overlooking the wide park under the steel sky we were drinking tea, Ewo on the comms to the No Refunds. The air felt fresh and there seemed to be a breeze blowing from the park as I could smell fresh cut grass, and hear children playing. Transportation in the city was all via the tubes, no personal vehicles. The air just tasted good it seemed. Perhaps because being in the ship for a week at a time, despite the best scrubbers, you are still breathing the same air. Of course, we were breathing the same air here as well, but in a city of over a hundred thousand people build in huge underground shells. With parks, I thought to myself, watching couples walk by. 

Ewo finally got off the comms, looked at me and said, "It's a go. They'll be here tomorrow morning. In the meantime, we can start gathering additional info from what Datas gave us." We already had the floor maps and some basic security information. I was wondering who had agents where as we had what appeared to be sensitive information. Paying our tab, we found a cheap hotel overlooking the Sprockets building, and I took out my computer and interfaced with the system to start digging into our target. I was helped a bit with the codes and infostream from Datas. It was a long night, and Ewo was working her own set of leads through the more public facing bots and people, using her advocate training along with her native glare.

Trying to be a bit more thematic. Not sure if I want to keep trying this or not, though I have always thought about being a writer. Regardless, I am going to chain together a few rolls, to see if I get any additional modifications for my success roll against what is going to be both a risky and difficult job. Malik rolls an 8 for his comms role. While he does not have computer skill other than at 0, I think parlaying some of that investigative skill may help, and so while not getting a great deal of info, neither does he trigger any intrusion alarms. So going to call that nothing extra. Ewo, on the other hand, rolls an 11. With her computer 1, I'll throw in an extra bonus for their roll. The next day the rest of the crew shows up, and with floor plans and computer intrusions and al the other preparations, it is time to see how we do. I think Malik may be a bit unnerved by their willingness to cross an apparently legal line, but as this is not in the Imperium but rather the League, perhaps his morals are a bit more flexible. Though this time he is in the action rather than reporting on the action!

Going with this is both a shaky plan due to the high technology Krim has, and dangerous as there well could be lethal protections over at the Sprockets building. And we squeak by, but only with the advantages from Ewo's previous roll as well as our passports (going to count that as a great asset), else there may have well been a fatality. And we can't afford that as I really need more crew about the ship as it is larger than I accounted for. We had a good consequence, so not only did we get the information Avison is wanting, we got some piece of kit. So, a high-tech office which I've not figured out what they are high-tech in...ahh, Psiz was a company that was working with autonomous vehicles. There are a couple of possibilities: a very high-end computer, much better than Malik's, perhaps with some autonomy? I think we'll go that way, and I'll work up the computer. Put an intelligence in there and see what else we can do with computers in various versions of Traveller. Classic not much, but I think T5 and Mongoose have some interesting things we may be able to do. Maybe a robot instead...that would also fit into the autonomous aspect of things. I'll see - I have at least book 8 (robots) in PDF form though I think I also have rules in a few other places. A small robot could be cool.

We're going to wrap up our Krim trip here: Datas is going to supply a couple of sample autonomous vehicles as well as pay for first class passage to Tryonous for his sales team. We'll be able to sell those vehicles so that will be pure profit, as well as have passengers aboard. So there will be some in-jump rolls to see what happens there!

Now to print up a travel sheet of sorts (and I may post that in a bit) to give me some basic world info and contacts and what we did there. I've found digging back through the blog just does not work well for me!

Traveller Tracker Again?

 Yep, broke down as I really miss programming in C# and a overly-complicated IDE (Integrated Development Environment) as well as XAML. Nice things about XAML is data-binding is pretty straight-forward. I do need to mess with the Blazor web development as I can actually use XAML to create web pages. In theory...

Regardless. I decided that I can work on the trade part of this as is. So I've added a world button that does absolutely nothing at the moment. The plan is start small: have a place to put in the UWP and start chugging away. First step is to calculate the trade codes as they can all be calculated from the UWP with some exceptions (capitol, puzzles, etc). 

So Visual Studio is up to date, finally got the XAML styler installed so that the code looks better, added the gear icon for the settings (to be defined) layout, and used one of my ISO maps for the world icon.

So not entirely thematically consistent. I may redo the icons (hey, I can be like Microsoft & have an entire release that make the icons all look different. They spend a lot of time working on icons it seems!)

So I do have steps planned. First, get the rules for the trade classifications back in. I've done this more than once. I need to decide if I want to use an external file, JSON perhaps, to hold the rules so that the users can edit them. The idea would be something like:

{

"Asteroid": {

"Size": "0",

"Atmosphere": "0",

"Hydrographics": "0",

"Population": "",

"Government": "",

"Law Level": ""

},

"Desert": {

"Size": "",

"Atmosphere": "23456789",

"Hydrographics": "0",

"Population": "",

"Government": "",

"Law Level": ""

},

"Pre-Agricultural": {

"Size": "",

"Atmosphere": "456789",

"Hydrographics": "45678",

"Population": "48",

"Government": "",

"Law Level": ""

}

}

Pretty straightforward: for a desert world we don't care about anything but the atmosphere & hydrographics: need 0 (or up to 5% depending on your interpretation of how the UWP works) free standing water and an atmosphere 2, 3...9. We can have a trade classification model that can read that and then generate the appropriate tags. I think most people could edit this easily enough if it is an external file. I still may create a table but then I'd need an editor, but the table is pretty much the same as above, just built into the SQLite database this uses. 

Classic Traveller had a table to roll on the actual value based on individual cargos, a d66 list. T5 handles it via a straight +/- Cr1000 based on the trade which is entirely independent of what the cargo actually is. It is based, from what I understand, the old T4 trade rules. The base cost also changes based on the tech level from purchase and selling. And seems...bland. What I'll probably do it have it both ways: have a T5 cargo generator AND a Classic. But as above, probably allow for cargos to be edited by the user, which would also include the base price and the adjustments based on the trade classification.

Or perhaps I am biting off more than I'll actually get done. Again. It all works in my head at least...Pretty sure I'll just start with the Classic approach. Again.

Where is Traveller Tracker?

 I'll admit that I've not worked on this in far too long. Part of it is simply developer fatigue: work has picked up for me as we're in the process of converting systems, and as I work from home I don't want to spend even more time at the same place I work even if it is fun. Though I do spend evenings here when we game over Skype. And I work on these posts there as well.

Plus, the latest version I was working on uses .Net Core. It has been a race to keep up with that process as it seems every few weeks there is yet another update to .Net Core, but it looks like they actually have a publish option that can give the end user just an .exe file. So I may change the target to that version and see if we can get a basic .exe out there for anyone who even cares.

But in doing so, I am thinking I may change directions. Again, yes. Start with the actual cargo generator part. And this could even be a pure console thing, and start really small. A simple loop where the user enters the UWP and we generate the cargos. This would be the core of what the tracker was in my eyes: a thing to generate cargos. The backend would be modular so we could plug that into a GUI version later. And yes, Microsoft is also changing the GUI. I was using XAML which, though cumbersome, I think has a lot of power behind it. I think that will drive their new Windows GUI framework idea, but who knows. It is getting as bad as javascript frameworks: which one do we use this week?

Anyway, it has not been forgotten. But I also realize that there are maybe a dozen people who would use it, so it is not something anyone is actually clamoring for, not even me! The group I am with now does not want to play a trading game. So far I've had a Scout going to retrieve his Scout ship along with a scientist in his lab ship; a "let's start with you were all kidnapped and wake up on a sinking ship coming out of cold berth and good luck surviving on this planet"; and a "there is something out there we'd like you to investigate" scenarios. These were all what the SOLO Traveller rules would consider the Traveller campaign: living from job to job. Though there has been a big of cargo speculation but more for personal  rather than filling the ship cargo bay sort of thing.

I just want to keep at least a little up to date with C# and the .Net ecosphere. 

So, if I start with a console style program to use the cargo library, it would be be something like:

Enter the UWP here: A123456-7

and then it would take that, figure out the trade codes, generate the cargos that are available. Need to think about which version, and I am really thinking about getting back to having plain text files (maybe JSON) for the various lists and things rather than SQLite. But who knows - I may just continue on with what I've got :)

Sadly the Traveller Ruby project I said I'd help with I never actually helped with, and the developer is dropping it as well to get back to python development. Sad because I am finally making some progress with Rails and Ruby, learning the application we use at my work. I would have been able to actually start helping! I've even had a few small releases for work, and cleaned up some older code that did not reflect some of the newer things. As I've told them when I started picking up the Filemaker side of things, it is like pointillism: eventually there are enough dots to make an actual picture. Took me less time with the Filemaker side as that was all I did for 8 hours a day for the most part. Ruby/Rails I have now established an hour a day when I do "open programming": start a meeting on Teams, share my screen, and start working with the application. Mostly getting told what to do but at least now I know where to look for some of the things. And I can monkey-code: find a similar bit of code & use that. There is an image slowly forming finally, though I cannot say I like a lot of Rails conventions. Coming from a history of strict type checking and compiled code to the more loosely defined Ruby environment is sometimes jarring. Especially with Rails and how it "helps" you. Too many assumptions built into the framework for me. But I'm just an old, grumpy developer, and get off my lawn!

Paladins of the Pantheon: Tona's Guardians

 Thinking I could do an entire series of paladins for the various gods and goddesses of my little corner of the Fantasy Trip world. And that eventually I may have to bring it all together a bit better. And so here we are, some details for the goddess Tona's Guardians. Here is the description for Mim's Paladins.

The goddess Tona is the goddess of lesser creatures, as well as healing and the strife of life. Her paladins will always be animal and healing centric in their goals as well as their skills. There are only a few large enough temples that can train her paladins. These expansive temples have a temple, a hospital and healers training as well as the paladins training. There are two branches a paladin can follow when following Tona: the way of the creatures, where the focus is on the animal world, and the way of healing, where it is a both healing and more clerical path.

There is a bit of overlap between the paths. Both will eventually lead to horsemanship, bow, animal handling, naturalist, ax/mace and the cleric skill. Advanced paladins may also pick up vet though the healing path stresses that aspect more. 

For those following the creature path, the talents a follower will pick up will have basic weapon skills, though the bow is the preferred weapon of choice. They will be taught running, alertness, tracking, expert horsemanship, expert naturalist. 

Those on the healing path pick up physicker and master physicker, master theologian, literacy and scholarship (to read all those tomes).

The Temple of Reysandoyal, located in the grasslands, is a sprawling collection of temples, training facilities, and a healers college. Large pastures surround the facility and they are also known for well trained horses. There is also what many would consider more of a zoo, but is actually a place of healing for various creatures. There are several surrounding villages, as well as wandering tribes. Children are brought here to see if they have an affinity for the goddess and her creatures, and if so, may remain to be trained. Training takes years, and more than a few stay on to train the next group. The first few years are when the trainee decides which school to follow. They are all taught to care for animals. and learn horsemanship, animal handling, naturalist, cleric and the bow. After the first few years, when they are deemed ready, they make a training circuit throughout the grasslands and beyond with a senior paladin. Upon returning, they are granted their mace, the official indication that they are now a paladin of Tona.

The main advantage of being a paladin of Tona is there is magic involved. The mace is more than a well-crafted mace: it is enchanted with the spells of control animal and summon wolf without any cost to the wielder. After that the normal cost in ST is spent. Each spell may be called once per day without ST cost. The mace has an affinity for the goddess, so that a 3rd enchantment limits this spell to only her paladins. There are a few magical users in the temple that help enchant these weapons. Critical hits bring down the blessings of Tona, which make the character seem to glow for a moment:

• 5 will restore 1 hit point to you
• 4 will restore 2 hit points to you as well as double damage
• 3 will restore 3 hit points to you as well as triple damage

And yes, this is more than vague reference to Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series. But I enjoyed those books and so I decided to bring them in a bit to my world. Hey. Cidri is a BIG place!

We could do a bit of homebrew and add more spells or skills, but I am happy with the base rules of the Fantasy Trip. It has enough flexibility to play any sort of fantasy game you want to. Pretty much like Traveller, despite it getting deeply entrenched into the 3rd Imperium setting. The original rules, like those of the Fantasy Trip, were enough of a sandbox you can do what you want to. 

Opinion piece coming up Seems like DnD keeps rehashing the old adventures, just like Mongoose is doing with Traveller. There is so much more that could be done. Just like Traveller 5.10 reboots the Imperium and allows for even higher technology than the Classic but has not really given any real details to the environment. The exception there being the XBoat zine I backed on Kickstarter [and now available in DriveThru I think] that does a bit more explanation of the Galaxiad. Except via fan zines, and that is where the gold is for new adventures and ideas. And why I back way too many of those zines on Kickstarter - to get ideas. And hopefully use some of them! The Lamia adventure I've been working on is using parts from close to a dozen things, some for other games systems as well as a lot of system neutral stuff. Anyway, people need to work on their own worlds and let their imaginations soar beyond what is written. How many times has Ravencroft been done? I made the mistake of getting Mongoose's Travellers Aid magazines: fully 75% or so was stuff I already had, though changed a bit (usually for the worse) to fit in with the Mongoose current version of Traveller. It is the fan zines where real imagination is taking place. End of opinion piece. 

Okay, so we really need to create  two paladins, one that followed the healing path and the other that followed the creature path. If we assume we're getting a new paladin just off their training circuit, we can also add a few more points as this is no longer the kid just off the turnip truck. I'll work on the warrior version first, then another post for the cleric style paladin.

Sir Jenlak Layne of Reysandoyal, Guardian of Tona

ST 14 DX 14 (10) IQ 9

Fine Mace 2d (enchanted: summon wolf, animal control)

Long Bow 1d+2

Dagger1d-1

Fine Plate stops 6 points, -4DX 

Skills Knife, Ax/Mace, Bow, Horsemanship, Literacy, Running, Alertness, Priest

Spells Animal Control (though the mace also has this as an enchantment)

Rides a large horse, Cylof, well suited for the plains with long legs and great endurance. Not a war horse but a fine steed none the less.

Entering his 3rd decade, Sir Jenlak came from one of the many nomads drifting across the vast grasslands. His sister was injured by a charging boar, and the family, hearing of the Temple, got there. His sister was healed and, as the family was both impressed and felt gratitude, stayed on to help work the Temple's fields. His sister Dascia was more attuned to the medical arts and studied to become a Paladin of Tona. Jenlak, both more brash and feeling stifled from the family's shift to a settled life, pursued the path of weapons. Just back from his first training circuit, he has been knighted by the Temple as a full paladin. His training is not complete - he needs more experience to fully embrace his path. As he gets more experience, he will learn the naturalist and cleric skills eventually.

The Lamia's Labyrinth: Solo Test Game Part 2

 Perhaps this will be a post per room as I run through the map. And it may help to have a bit of the map to see where we are. We did room 1 yesterday, and today we are in room two:

This small antechamber has holes in the walls that looked to hold pegs or torches. There is blood on the floor (4D INT to determine it is only a few hours old, 2D if any woodsman or investigating skills) leading out of the southern open archway. Encounter: Giant Spider hanging on the SW corner; ST: 16 + 1d6 DX: 10 IQ: 10 MA: 12. 1d damage, roll 4/ST or suffer 2d damage from poison. The spider has what appears to be fresh wounds on it.

It is a small room, really only a couple of megahexes honestly. And this is where using hexes for square buildings has issues. I do have a battlemap, so I may switch to that so see if it is simpler to draw out the rooms. I was hoping to be able to leverage the tiles but unless you are really using a map designed for hexes, they don't work too well. But here we have room 2, with our giant spider!

A all-too quick battle ensues: with one character having a bow and high dexterity, she gets to shoot twice in a round, once at the beginning and once at the end. And unless she rolls a 16+ she won't miss! And two of the characters are apparently carrying morningstars which do a fair amount of damage. The first round the spider takes a beating, going from 22 points (I actually rolled a 6 for the ST) to 9 thanks to an arrow and two solid blows with the morningstars. The spider did not hit anyone, and wounded again from a 2nd arrow. The second round made short shrift of our poor giant spider. I was also using a d20 to track the hit points for that spider, and now realize how a spin down die would be a bit easier. Good thing I backed yet another Kickstarter for some giant d20 bloody spin down dice! Cool thing it is actually from a game store in Baltimore, so next visit back to my family I may have to visit as they live in the DC area. And depending on which way I go to the Eastern Shore for my mother, I may pass not too far away from that store. Anyway, spin down dice do not make the opposite sides add up to the same value (a d6 the 1 will always be opposite the 6, 2 and 5, etc. The theory is that the die will be more random if there are subtle weight differences). Spin down goes sequentially so it is easier to rotate. If perfectly balanced I would think it would be just as random but I have read that some DMs will not allow the use of spin downs at the table. But hey - a 2" die. 

 I also used the large creature cards, so this shot shows our dead giant spider and the card as well. I need to organize that deck of cards to be alphabetical so I can find the things! And make my own template to print my own cards on cardstock.  

So room two went by fairly quickly and was an interesting room. Do we want to stick potential treasure in this room as well? I don't think every room will have a treasure, but should have something exciting in it. The 1st room had nothing really, just a minor trap and minor treasure.

Additionally, there is a backstory to the temple/labyrinth they are in. I need to expand the descriptions a bit to start showing that this is a temple for Tona in her healing capacity. For instance, if anyone recognized the frescoes in the 1st room, they may know of Tona as my pantheon is well-known my corner of Cidri. But just how much do they know?

And this brings me to why I like having games start at a low level. Both the players and GM are exploring the world together, and knowledge they gain and create during play helps to flesh out the world I think more than just reading things. The characters are living them. In fact, the first game I played with this group they met an avatar of Mim though I doubt they remember much of that. Unfortunately it has been months since our last game and looks to be months more. But that is also another reason I am playtesting my own game: what do I need to bring with me to play, as we'll be playing probably at their house instead of the really cool warehouse we used to game at. Or we may play here - we'll just have to see how it plays out. And look at me, getting a pun in :)

Summary for room 2: small room, giant spider, no treasure. But another hint with the blood on the floor. And I think the characters will see wounds they did not inflict on the spider and know that they are going the correct way so far.

And - happy November 1! 

The Lamia's Labyrinth: Solo Test Game Part 1

 I decided I could run myself through my planned next game (which may be a ways off for the Fantasy Trip group as they are even more paranoid than we are about getting sick. Both our families have immuno-compromised spouses and we need to be careful). So, first thing is start grabbing tiles and set up room #1. After putting together a close enough approximation, I realize without walls it is a bit harder to imagine this as a room. Of course, that may be because I am anticipating some walls to show up at some point from a Kickstarter, Ramparts. And while I have some fantasy doors (which you can barely see in this picture I think) I have no fantasy floors yet, so it is more of a grate to be able to hold that door. Of course, I also have doors showing up that will better match. But I digress. 

So the party is dropping into room number one, a 20 foot drop from the shifting sands above. The room is described as:

The entrance is through a hole in the ceiling, dropping down about 20 feet to the sand covered floor below. The 6 sided room has a closed door to the south and an open door to the east. Sand is piled up under the hole and you can see footprints in the sand going to the east door. The room is cool and dusty, with the whispery sound of the air over the hole in the roof in the adventurers ears. The walls and ceiling have frescoes of human, animal and magical figures cavorting about. Remains of what appear to be kneeling benches are crumbled against one wall. Small alcoves on the northwest wall are empty except for one with a gold statue of a cockatrice. For statue, 4D/INT to notice trap, 2D with detect trap skill. Normal save roll against poison needles that will do 1d6 damage. For the frescoes, INT roll vs 4D, 2D if they have history or priest skills to recognize that these are from the local pantheon but are representing what looks to be gods and goddesses amongst regular beings. Amongst them is a animal goddess.

In reading part of this out loud, I think I need to make the room a bit more spooky (of course I am writing this on Halloween, the power just flickered [fortunately I my computer system is on battery backup so no disruption there!] so perhaps some of that is creeping in!). I need a short but better way of the initial impression of the room. Something more like:

You drop to the sand-covered floor, faint moonlight shining against the pile of sand beneath the hole in the ceiling 20' above. The air is cooler and you hear the whisper of the desert winds above you.  Your torches give frescoes on the walls the appearance of life as the shadows flicker across paintings of humans, animals and magical creatures cavorting about. Against the walls are the rotting remains of benches, and you can see the glint of what appears to be a small gold statue in a niche on the wall.

That does seems a bit better maybe. The room otherwise is pretty barren, just the one trap, and nothing to signify any connection to anything other than those frescoes. I am also going to use a picture from one of the artists I patronize on Patreon, CCJ Ellis. She does Welsh mythical art among other things, and has some really cool stuff. I think this image is another good way of looking at Tona, the Goddess of Lesser Creatures.

I also grabbed 4 random character cards from the Fantasy Trip Deck, and paired them with 4 cards that expand on the basic character to something approaching an actual player character.

Which does help, especially if I go through the Death Test again! But other than that 1 trap next to the gold cockatrice statue, there is nothing much going on in this room. Should there be more? A random treasure? I'll probably leave this as is as other rooms do have a lot more, and this room has been open for a bit at least to the desert above. However, I think there does need to be a more active encounter, more of one of those nuisance creatures. So maybe a small number of scorpions or spiders. Nothing to hurt anyone with armor, but an active enemy to get things warmed up.

So our master thief eyes the gold statue, and manages to do well on her roll to avoid the trap. So she now has one gold statue. I probably need to establish a cost, but when I play this, unless the character has assess value, they will only know that it is a small gold statue.

And that is as far as I really got: took longer for the set up and finding doodads for scatter terrain. In fact, I forgot my cheap rocks and may add them as well. Hopefully tomorrow I can go through more rooms.

Anyway, this adventure is pulling things in from a few Kickstarter zines, a couple of my Patreon feeds, and my own imagination as well as all the Fantasy Trip stuff I managed accumulate. I am going to rewrite that 1st paragraph as above though. The revised version seems more evocative.

More info on Tona here.

SOLO - League of Planets: Krim 245-1106 (part 3)

 Well, we've not gotten too far after redoing our ship a great deal. And, to make things work, I've decided to throw in a bit of subterfuge to help with the payments: the No Refunds often makes trips back and forth between the Imperium and the League. Part of that is information gathering, and our Captain Lynwood Laux is not above scoring information as well as cargo. However, he is a part of the Antares Ship Builders and Trade Speculators, which is an Imperium corporation. So not exactly a spy but open to passing along information. Not sure there is a a secrets part of Solo (could not find it) but our good Captain and the rest of the crew possibly are always on the lookout for information about the League. Another aspect of playing solo is that I've picked a different character than the captain to be the main character. 

But, back to the game! With Cr91,800 in our balance, we spend the 1st two days searching for cargo near the busy and quite large port. Using Mongoose 2e rules, we are at a class B port (though I am wondering if it should be bumped to an A, being one of the gateways to the Imperium plus having the technology to build jump drives. Something to think about, perhaps the ISS files are out of date. Or the League is hiding manufacturing capacity?) Regardless, using the Mongoose rules (which are very similar to Classic) we roll d66: and common industrial goods. Well, we are on a high population industrial world. For some reason that makes the purchase higher (+5) and getting the lot at 80%, the 70 tons would cost Cr560,000. So we don't even have the credits for this. We also need to look at the systems around us, as that also affects the resale value. 

This is one of the big issues with trade in Traveller: you need credits to make credits. And while Cr91,800 sounds like a lot, for purchasing goods it is not enough more often than not. Which is why we have the side adventures!

After hitting the ferrocreate a couple of days, the only thing that may have been worth our while was some pumps. Who would need 70n tons of pumps is not something I know anything about! So Ewo and I decide to head out into some of the smaller outland communities: we've heard some rumors about other industries that are not ted as tightly to the port. Looking at the map, there are tubes above ground that hit most of the major cities. Looking at the maps, we see that Leahogstein City, one of many sunken cities, has some autonomous vehicle manufacturers. Getting back in touch with Captain Laux, it seems we're heading to Tryonas next. A non-industrial rich world, we'd get a good price there, However, pricing is still outside of our available funding. Ewo thinks that we may be able to persuade one of the manufacturers to start a more direct selling to Tryonus. We may be able to set up that connection. We have a bit of an issue getting a passport to exit the port [law level 8, rolled a 5, which indicates there is some contact with officials; we'll make this a simple task. With Ewo's skills in admin, advocate and diplomacy, give it the +1. Going with a s solid play so we need 8+ (7+ with her skills factored in: roll a 10, so success in getting our passports. And having good consequences from the success, we somehow find a useful or valuable piece of kit. So, lets make that a League passport, valid for all worlds within the League. We'll each have our own League passport (yay, a chance to make up an ID card!)] With our new passports in hand, we board the tubes and head to Leahogstein City, a tube ride of about 6 hours.

Gotta love old science fiction! And I wish I kept better track of where I find things, though pretty sure this was found in a search for underground cities. a high-tech tube transport will have all the bells and whistles. And could look like this:

A two deck surface transport system. Think Krim is going retro-futuristic. Andhere's where we roll on the world encounter table, and when we get to Psziz Industries, we find that there is another trader that apparently has the same idea as we do. What will happen?

And our Krim visit has gone on already for a few sessions, mostly because I am also going back to updating various things. I do have the character sheets written at least, so those are now on paper. But I am also getting myself into a corner with the lack of funding for a real trade game, which is why we're trying to set up a trade deal that we can broker without tying us down. So, let's make an other plan, though this one may have things that can go wrong as we may not make the deal. Still sticking with the +1 for Ewo's skills, and another +1 for our nifty passport. Apparently the other trader does not have that and is here on a temporary visa, or perhaps is native to the League. But is this a shaky or solid? As we're dealing with a lot of factors, I will go with shaky. And Ewo failed to make our case, and that deal falls through. Now there are consequences to this, but injury for a failed business deal seems a bit harsh. But to make lemonade out of lemons, the executive, impressed by Ewo's plan but preferring to go with a League citizen to broker the deal, has something a bit on the shady side side that may help out (hey, this is a role playing game, not economics!) Malik feels that the exec, one Vax Datas at least seems okay. Apparently, a rival company has been doing some corporate espionage. If we could investigate their systems to find proof, he would continue to make a deal with us.

And now to pause to figure out the plan, and all that. Ewo and Malik may bring in the rest of the crew to make this somewhat risky adventure. But we're sort of cornered, so off to adventure.

I do need to add Vax Datas as a contact now on Krim. I've not been good at tracking the contacts per world so will have to go back through the posts to find them.

Pantheon: Tona, Goddess of the Lesser Creatures

 Daughter of Tionnia, God of All Living Things, and Blizria, Goddess of All Demons, Tona inherited part of her father's gifts with the animal kingdom. She is also the goddess that most female warlocks, witches and mages align with, regardless of race.  

There are a lot of similarities with Freyja, the Norse Goddess:

Freyja, the Norse goddess of witchcraft, death, love, and fertility, was later condemned by Christian missionaries as the “Queen of Witches.”

I did not actually know that when I wrote my pantheon back in the 80s college days, but in looking for some images that portray her, I found this image by irenhorrors, and rolling with the queen of witches (and perhaps I had been reading some Norse mythology or just got really lucky by coincidence):

info and image from this blog

Tona's animals include a wide variety of the "lesser" creatures, so does not include dragons and other sentient creatures of a similar ilk. She is often portrayed as a healer, from the abada whose magic horns is the antidote to all known poisons . This creature is originally from Central Africa and in my part of Cidri, exists in the plains and mountains. Read up on that from Cryptids, Creatures and Critters by Rachel Qunney. Another Kickstarter book that looked interesting, and I thought I could use it for an inspiration for gaming. And I am :)

And going through the Lesser Key by Psychoda Press, another Kickstarter book for generating religions in fantasy worlds. Written more for DCC, it requires dice I do not have. Yet. May have to see about a DCC dice set to get a d24 and d30. So I am faking some of the rolls. and re-rolling or picking what sounds better. And I apologize for this being more of a stream of consciousness than it should be. At some point I may collect my pantheon postings and try to get them ordered a bit. Not that I've 

Tona's heralds are usually in the form of various creatures, though they may be larger or smaller than typical. Additionally, there is a 50% chance that the Herald will also be covered in flames, a gift from Blizria that Tona sometimes has difficulties with. The animal will always be native to where the Herald is encountered. One that is hunted or killed will often bring down her wrath with another Herald in a much larger form. Fortunately, her Heralds are easy to detect as not a normal creature on 2d6 versus IQ. That and they will talk, as well as possibly being enveloped in flames. Her Heralds will often come upon wounded travelers, and will exchange healing for a quest. Her quests are usually to aid those who are victims: witches being persecuted, animals being abused, fay being attacked. 

Upon the appearance of a Herald, there is a silence that extends from the Herald. Animals are frozen, even birds in flight are frozen in place. The Herald's voice is in the characters heads and speaks their native tongue. Afterward, other than the quest given, little can be recalled of how it sounded. Upon leaving, the Herald will bound away, returning to what appears to be a normal version of that creature. The sounds start back up and birds continue their flight. It is as if time has paused for all but the Herald and the adventurers. 

There are often shrines and temples for Tona, found in all sorts of environments. The temples usually house 2-12 clerics and have statuary of various creatures. Often inside the statues are vials of healing and antidotes, used by the clerics to help heal their flock. More often than not the clerics are women but men are equally welcome in most temples. Some, however, are often all female, and can be actually belligerent to men for a variety of reasons. Temples tend to be a bit serpentine with some central chamber approached via a curving corridor. For Tona and her adherents, life is never a straight path. Her temples often carry her symbol: a mace on an octagonal base, and an animal engraved on the mace. The animals vary by location, usually depicting a local magical creature, but may often be something simple as a rabbit or turtle as well. The symbols are usually made of bronze. Clerics have a sort cape made of cloth, and the symbol is often embroidered on this cape in bronze threads.

Services are held using percussion instruments as the background with singing predominating the service. Sacred texts are usually inked on linen sheets. There are a few high services held at mid-solstice, and prayers sent to renew protections for the community. The community could be the native animal population, or any group that needs protection. High services last for a week, starting on Thursday and starting at midnight. Regular services tend to be sporadic and when enough people come together to want to share a service, or if the cleric determines that a service is needed. 

There are no relics for Tona. Saints are usually those who have served her by saving or rescuing those in need, be they creatures or beings.  They are usually depicted bowing, holding a mace with an animal carved into it, wearing a loincloth and guarded by a Herald. A small bowl to hold gems is the usual offering; these are often used to build the temples and feed those in need.

And I've reworked by little adventure a bit, incorporating a bit of this info. PDF should be below.

Microlite Fantasy Game

 So we've had 3 sessions so far with Sir Zay getting transported from the D&D world of Ravencroft to the homebrew world we're in. And we're having a lot of fun. I am also really enjoying being able to learn more about my character via play: just writing a background up gives be a basis for who the character was, but playing a character you can see who the character is. And who he is becoming. In college, some of our longer game arcs allowed this sort of thing. And the other group I play with, though I am the GM, we've played the same characters (well, except for that 1 PC death! And actually, if the player wants to bring him back, there could be a death quest. I have the Spiral Islands from Kickstarter which is the land of death with the way back. So if they really wanted to bring him back, we could try that. Or they all end up stuck on the Spiral Islands....)

So it is a lot of fun. We may be bringing another player on-board, and I sent the GM & him the following recap. I've read that the players should let the GM do the recaps, but our GM is a first line person working way too many hours and yet manages to give us a very entertaining game. He is my current role model for how I want to run games: fun, mostly a sandbox with overriding plans, but fast on his feet with characterizations and handling what we throw out there. 

Anyway, here is the recap, just a copy/paste from the email. I did give the group the random table for mutant telepathic rats from  Tales of the Smoking Wyrm, another Kickstarter of some gonzo things I need to read & use. While I don't think Bill the Rat is more than the best of poor Bill, the previously possessed clerk, one never knows! Hopeully the DM is okay with me publishing this, but as I've not many readers outside the group, think this is okay.

Session 1: Background: The War of Shadows started 4 years ago in an ancient city in what is now known as the Warlands (previously known as the Middlelands). In the Free Nations, the high ranking nobles were killed off at some time to shake up the power structure in what is called the Night of the Bloody Stars. Their missives were received and they were killed off as well. The Warlands started burning, and troops emerged from the great chasm known as the Scar. The Free Nations started building a standing army at Bastian. Surrounded by a lake, it is now a fortified city built up rapidly over the last 4 years. The last major battle was horribly lost to the Forces of the Shadow. Bastian power structure is lead by the High Wardens, a group of 5, then the Wardens who are the leaders of the Free Nations, and Yeoman who are heroes of the battles. The island to the West is the Galon Empire, all humans, and where Sir Zay (my character) found himself transported to a few weeks prior to our game. He travelled with Sea Wolf , their leader, who was gravely injured in our last combat. While Sir Zay still somewhat confused, knows that this place has not heard of Pholtus but does have a Peltos, Father of Light. There were many philosophical discussions, but after Sea Wolf's injury, the laying on of hands seemed to do more harm than good. Something repeated later, yet Sir Zay is a true believer...
Bastian is known as the last light against the darkness, and has about 20 thousand people. The guards are known as the Gargoyles. Grey Wolf is the leader of the Gargoyles.
Our group met up at one of the notice boards: the Wardens were looking for a few good men (and women). Sir Zay the Paladin (me), Stern the Demon Hunter (Jonathan), Flick, the (rogue?) Elf (Scott) and Father Tobias of the Lady of the Hills, the Argent Lady, the cleric NPC played by Danny take the notice & head to the castle up high. Introduced to the high wardens: the Arch Warden is a scary Elf, Suthiel (sp?), along with a heavy Dwarf (Amish?) wearing heavy leathers and tattooed serpents, a huge grey skinned human 7'8" tall, a human from the far south, and Erin (sp?) Knight of Elom Holt. We are given a view of a great beast pounding the walls via a telescope and tasked with finding the missing manticore venom, the only thing they think can kill the magic-created beast. Unfortunately the cask with the poison was stolen by clerk Bill who is now in the deepest dungeon. We get down there, and when I do a detect evil poor bill screams that he has been cursed. And oddly we smell pears, not a common fruit in Bastian.


Session 2 Bill is in the dungeon with the most dangerous of criminals, 6 of the 8 cells are occupied. There was some discussion between Flick, Father Tobias and another prisoner, and they left to get something from an alchemist (and this may have been session 1, as I think Scott could not make it to session 2). So while the party splits up (hee-hee), Sir Zay and Stern decide to see what possesses the poor Bill. Stern creates a devil trap so that whatever evil is there cannot escape, and as Sir Zay crosses that boundary to try a laying on of hands he is filled with light and warmth, so pretty sure the trap will be effective. Sadly, not having learned from Sea Wolf, the laying on of hands goes horribly wrong: the guard watch from several steps back turns to ash, nothing left but armor and smoking boots. Unfortunately the paladin and demon hunter both failed their mind roll, and turning to one another, see demons. So of course we attack. And damage each other prior to finally making saving rolls. Looking back at Bill, we see him stretched out really oddly, with black shadow wings. His left hand is ash from reaching through the demon circle, the rest of him clad in midnight shadows. A voice from the darkness addresses Stern: I am Malkeous (sp?), he who slew your parents. Then Bill turns to ash. Malkeous is a vengeance demon, and apparently in this world Dwarves do not believe in magic, so it may kill them when they see it. I may be a tad confused about this point. The Dwarf Creator Goo-Dwa<something....> (obviously sp?) cannot see demons. Dermus, a guard and another guard peek around the corner with wide eyes, trying not to notice the smoking boots. There is a rat holding a large ruby in the cell, and Stern gives it a bit of food and takes the gem: apparently what is left after a demon is vanquished. We are led back up, and we discuss the room where the poison was taken from. Apparently in looking over it, we find a coal chute with kegs of oil, spears and other store room detritus around it. And a trace of pear smell. And the rat we saw in the cell, but not acting rat like. Stern recognizes that this is all that is left of Bill, his essence left over from his possession. And apparently Bill the Rat has a good sense of smell, so we follow the pear smell down the Mount of the castle and after 2, 3 hours of wandering through, under and around Bastian we end up in the Grand Bazaar, a 20 block area where you can buy or sell anything.


Session 3 Flick, following the hints from the prisoner from episode 1, is at the bazaar to get a special mushroom, often used for poison. Meeting a Dragonborn trader (not sure what else to call her) and told to meet in about a gong or so, which is about an hour. This lizard folk may know where to find pears in Bastian, and is willing to trade information for exchange for a building inspection. The warehouse, a couple of blocks away, would give better traffic and less worry about goods getting stolen from her mostly open stall. The owner of the warehouse has been singularly unhelpful about the current occupation of the building. The merchant would trade information for an exploration of the building to see if it is safe.
At this point we get both groups back together. Father Tobias remarks on the rat on Stern's shoulder, but also mentions we've been followed. Being a gregarious story teller, Father Tobias starts a sermon / story while the rest of us dart around a corner alley. We are confronted by what looks to be some serious thugs, though Flick has climbed up the drainpipe and is on the roof above us, somehow hiding in the late afternoon shadows Apparently Sir Zay's religious symbols are an affront, and we are the blasphemous group that needs a lesson in what gods to worship. While Stern immediately attacks and Flick gets ready to leap down from the roof, Sir Zay first attempts to merely parry any attacks, hesitant to attack clergy of any non-evil faith. The attackers apparently to not share that concern. The Devoti of Adament Dawn (sp?) continue their attacks, with Flick killing those on the rooftop with her (along with some good acrobatic rolls, so she is like Robin or Nightwing fighting). Stern just killing left & right, and Sir Zay effectively if late in killing his opponents. Having killed 4 of th 5 attacking us, we discover that they are indeed clerics, but fanatics and not well liked in Bastian. Their leader, Barnabus Hale, has a jade figure of a hawk about 3-3" across, and Flick "checks" the bodies as Stern lays them out and Sir Zay does a quiet prayer for their souls (sorry, did not think of that at game time but in hindsight...) About then some Gargoyles (city guard) come around to see what is happening, and that's where we hear about the fanatics recently coming into the city. The guards were impressed, and will take the bodies to the furnaces. They take some additional notes, Stern mentions Suthiel (sp?), and they leave. Father Tobias is finishing up is amazing story / sermon, and Bill picks up the scent of pears heading north again. He sadly loses the scent a couple of blocks away from the Greenery. It's around 2, 3pm in the Grand Bazaar, and heading north just past the Bazaar and heading towards the Mount (where the Wardens rule) and entering the Jumble, the pricy part of town. Back at the Greenery we see our merchant friend, Kellian Greyscale (sp?) The Sauren (okay, not Dragonborn) is on the verge of saying something but then holds back. But did notice surly men entering the warehouse he is interested in, and they looked formidable. We work out the details of what the merchant is looking for: is the building intact and sound and if it looks to be a good place to move to. A brief view of the building does not show any markings or religious symbols. We also see (I think unless this was a repeat of earlier) 4 or 5 surly, leather men entering the buildings, with bladed weapons.
Eating at a nearby rummary facing the warehouse, Sir Zay gets a clay pot of good ale for a gold (more than the rum was worth, but as a noble we don't pay attention to the little things). The warehouse sits about 10-15 feet above the street, with large loading doors in the front as well as along one of the sides. These 10x10' doors are large enough for wagons to fit through and are covered with metal eaves. The building is about 60x180'. We see some dark garbed men enter, using a key. Robert, our ale seller, knows that the building was owned by old man Cole (sp?). About 2 stories high.

Sunday Painting - Zombicide:Invader Alien

 The primary reason I backed Zombicide:Invader was the minis. Turns out that my son also enjoyed the few games we had, so hopefully there will be some more games to play. Being a lazy Sunday afternoon, I decided I wanted to try & paint something as it has been a few weeks since I've managed to break out the paints. 

So, washed and dried the model, a sort of Alienesque creature that will work for fantasy and SF (and maybe horror, so a monster of all trades!)

A base coat of Nagul Green goes on next. Want him darker but this can work for a base coat. In hindsight I may have tried the cheaper acrylic as I do have a darker green, but this is only the 1st layer.

A few spots were missed but they will get caught up later. So next a bit of red for that tongue, then a 1st sort of dry brushing to get some of those chitin plates a bit darker.

So we have a blushing Xenomorph :)  Next I want to fill in the nooks and crannies so out comes a dark wash to spread about where it needs to go. It also helps with the chitin plates, though I am going to have to see about getting some matte duller to make things not so shiny after some of those washes.

I'll be doing some darker green in some spots, and a lighter green highlighting the edges and raised areas. Not sure if I want to make some of those areas a darker red. And I am also not using a lot of different colors. I know several miniature paint suppliers often will collect a trio of colors for this sort of shading, so you can start with each layer as is. I may eventually look into that - I do have a few wish list item in my Reaper account, but I need to try some other paints as well.  But the wash takes a bit longer to dry out, so taking a break. 

SOLO - League of Planets: Krim 245-1106 (part 2)

 After the inspection crew left, we got a pip from the Port to let us know to dock at Bay 11B. Next to main hub C - apparently the port is spread out over several major and minor hubs. Acknowledging and passing the info on to Captain, a course is plotted to the purplish world below us. With barely a trace of atmosphere, the flight to the Port is all gravatics with very little of the roar of atmosphere that still manages to get through ship hulls sometimes. As with our approach to Krim, grav drives make most landings a straightforward affair. As we get within the 100 diameter limit, traffic is heavier: Krim is one of the major interfaces between the League and the Imperium and a lot of traffic goes through here. Keeping to our flight lane, we approach the sprawling port: looking via external cameras with smart overlays, I can see us approach Hub C, a large, half-hexagonal structure with spokes of travel tubes leading to various concourses covering several square kilometers of the harsh surface. We are transferred from the main Port tower to Hub C's control tower, and we make our final approach to the landing area. With barely a transitional bump, we go from hovering above the tarmac to landing, our port airlock facing the automated docking platform. After a quick conversation with the local tower, the dock connects to the port airlock. Monitoring the sensor deck, I okay connections and feel the ship's atmosphere slowly starting to adjust to Krim standard. It will take only a few minutes as we started the process on the way down. Krim's atmosphere in the various habitable spaces is a bit thinner than I am used to but should not cause any issues. 

I am also going with the autoconnecting airlock systems, very similar to the airport systems but of course air-tight, radiation resistant, also carry connectors for power, atmosphere and other processes. While it cannot refuel the ship, it does, if allowed, power the ship and supply an atmosphere. In MTU the fusion plants don't turned off so are generating power. But this would also allow for some replenishment of atmospheric necessities. 

By the SOLO rules, at this point we approach (done), land (rolled an 8, so nothing exciting came up), unload (to be done), cargo sale (to be done) and arrange for accommodation for the week. 

Ewo was on the comms as we were approaching Krim ,looking into the various brokerages and buyers in-system. She did not seem overly excited, but I can't easily read Aslan expressions - entirely alien to me despite spending the last several weeks with her on the No Refund. As we landed she indicated she was going to take me to the various brokerage houses, looking for both a place to off-load our textiles and see what was available at the port. She figured on two days in-port, and if nothing came up, we'd explore further afield. 

Rolling on the actual value table I rolled an 8 on the way down, and yet another 8 as Ewo and Malik cover the local broker houses. And if we use the flux version in Traveller, that is 5-3 for a roll of 2, 120%. Looking at the Classic, we're at 110% but as I really prefer Classic mechanics (the T5 rules seem so dry, no personality. Everything is the same based on the world it comes from in terms of cost per ton). So I will take the lower. By the stats, Krim is an Industrial, High Population world, so no bonuses there. But at 110% we'll still make profit, but is it enough to cover costs? Sadly Ewo only has Broker-0 so nothing to add there either. Digging back (and this is why I am slowly putting this to paper and in a notebook) And it turns out I forgot we also had 2 tons of crystals, which I did manage to sell for 120%, then the +3 for an industrial world gives us 170%):

• 55 dTons of Textiles (base Cr3000), purchased at 40% for Cr55,000, sold for Cr$181,500 (profit Cr126,500)
• 2 dTons of crystals (base Cr20,000), purchased at 80% for Cr32,000, sold for $cr68,000 (profit = Cr36,000)

For a total of Cr162,500. You may think that is a lot but starships in Traveller are so freaking expensive. And I need to greatly update the ship: it is almost twice the size I was estimating, so our costs will be affected obviously. So let is figure for 650 dTon ship instead of the 300 ton ship I was thinking it was (see https://traveller-ct.blogspot.com/2020/08/of-spaceships-and-volume.html for the calculations needed; and the Lakata class ships are 3,100 ton displacement). Meaning we may really need more crew but I'll worry about that later. So our cost is going to be higher.  Reworking quickly on a 650 ton ship instead of the 300 I erroneously estimated before (and this only seems to further my argument that I am horrible at estimates!)

• 650 ton custom craft, needle/wedge (streamlined) +20%: MCr 7.8
• Jump 2 drives (20 dTons): MCr80
• Man 2 drives (33 dTons): MCr23.1
• Power 2 (26dTons): MCr78
• Computer: Model 2fib (B) (4Dtons): MCr14

Giving us at this point MCr202. We'll round up to MCr225 as there are are few other bits in there. We also now actually have more cargo space: 110 tons in the main hold, and 35 still in the forward vehicle hold. As a reminder, this ship is designed as a fast courier / light cargo. And we'll also adjust it so that Captain Laux managed to get it after it has been in service for 30 years already, so 3/4 paid for. Giving us MCr38 or so he is paying off. 

So back to costs:

• Monthly
• Mortgage = 1/240 Cr158,333
• Maintenance = .1% of ship cost, Cr225,000. Hmm, that seems REALLY high. But this is per year, so per month Cr18,750. 
• Salaries = going with ship shares, so we can ignore this
• Per Trip (week assuming a jump)
• Fuel (there is a fuel filter system so unfiltered is fine)
• Jump 1: 65 tons x Cr1000: Cr65,000
• Jump 2: 130 tons x Cr1000: Cr130,000
• Life support: 6 double staterooms: Cr18,000

Looking at the costs, there is no way this ship can make it on trade alone. Of course, that is the premise for Traveller, to get the characters into doing more than just trying to make a living by trade alone. 

We just did a jump 1, so looking at Cr65,000 for the fuel, Cr1000 for the 1st week for sitting at the port. Leaving us now with Cr96,500. And we'll also do 1/4 of our monthly maintenance for another Cr4700 leaving us with Cr91,800 for new cargo. 

So while all that is going on, we'll see if we can find a reasonable cargo while here.

And as this post took a bit longer than expected, we'll see how the cargo search and the other solo aspects work in the next post!