Dungeon Crafting

 I've been painting my science fiction floors and walls from Dungeons and Lasers (and I also backed D&L 2 and figure I'll go fantasy for the core set but pick up that sweet Dwarf mining room. And a big dragon or two). I've been experimenting with making a dark wash which I am actually happy with. Using a tube of black acrylic paint that cost all of $1 and mix to about 1 part paint and 3 parts or so water and it does pretty well with filling in the back spaces. I use a plastic blister pack from a mini for mixing, so recycling as well as saving money. I figured if I used the Army Painter washes I bought, the paint would be more than the plastic walls!

I started with a dull grey primer, using your generic primer from Wal-Mart. $4 for a can beats the $9 for a half size can and for scenery it works well enough for me. Then each set has its own colors laid on that. Initially I was hand painting details, and doing a poor job that looked bad. So I took an entirely different approach: the primer, then the dark wash for the shadows, then decided what to do for each set.

Each set as its own color scheme. The core set got a blue dry wash on first then a copper dry wash on top of that. Trying to make my ships scruffy and worn looking. Hopefully the last post or two back shows that okay, but I think they look better close up.

The AI center has a white wash, then I started painting the little buttons and things. I've got some clear plastic from a pasta box, and I've tried cutting to cover the monitor, but you can't really see it so not sure if I plan on doing that or not. I may try painting one side, then flipping to see if it shows up looking more like a glass screen. Experiments, I tell you!

The xenogeneis chamber is of course green on the dark wash. This set of rooms may be usable for fantasy as well.

The engine room uses that silvery blue paint to look more like stainless steel. Not sure how effective it works but I am happy enough with it for the moment.

Overall, generally happy though some things got too heavy a coat: I need to practice more obviously, which is true of everything. 

Finally, I bought some little tiny battery-powered lights that I am also going to mess around with. I am hoping to be able to use them to make torches on walls, or lights in the ship. Not sure why the Dwarf is aboard this ship, but I thought I needed a character for scale. Hmm, could also put the lights in the floor. Nice thing about these nano-lights is that I got a pair for $5 including wiring and a battery, so cheap enough to mess with. I bought 2 sets, so we'll see where this goes.

And looking through the door into the control room(pre-light)

And finally, I do have part of this organized in bins. And bins in bins :)  Got to thinking about how I would transport this stuff to a game session once we actually get back into face to face gaming. I'll have to pick and choose the things I will need but should be able to fit it all into 1 bin. I have one box full of skeleton minis. I must have liked them though I think one of the horses is missing a rider. Those are all old actual D&D metal minis from the 80s. Good times!

Finally, I really do need to get back to my Traveller solo game. Maybe tonight or tomorrow depending on time. I mowed the grass today (hopefully last time of the year) and found a ground nest full of bees. Who were quite angry with me. Only about 5 stings or so, and I am so glad I am not allergic to bees! Tomorrow is actually a pretty full day - gym, then Red Cross to give platelets, then meeting one of my gaming buddies who I have not seen since February or so! Turns out a game I've been holding on to over 35 years, and never played, is on his wish list. So hopefully I'll remember to bring him Starship Troopers and maybe, when we can get back to gaming face to face, we can add another game day that is not an RPG game as we both love (and both suck at apparently!) war games and other games.

True fact: I got into RPGs as I truly am a horrible tactician and strategist. I got tired of my 3 year younger neighbor beating me at every single game we played. Though I still had fun, it is nice to win once in a while!

And finally: if you can, give blood or platelets. I started decades ago, and it helps people who are going through the hell that is cancer. My wife barely survived 3 years ago, and while I don't think any of my platelets made it to her, I do know that they have gone to people that it literally means life and death to. And hey, I can see a Traveller adventure wrapped up around delivering plasma. In fact, there was an Amber Zone Chill in the Journal of the Travellers Aid Society #15 that dealt with this very thing. Hmm, maybe I need to reread all those Traveller magazines again.

More catchup, and slightly more revised Sir Zay

 After finding out I was looking at the wrong set of microlite rules and, you know, reading the last email from the DM with the current rules, finally got all the rules so some minor revisions. Most of these were made during our session 0 / session 1 game last Monday. Sir Zay was transported to the Galon Empire several weeks before our group gets together, and has fought in at least one battle against the dark tide rising out of the Warlands. While a follower of Pholtus, in this strange new land no one has heard of that god, but there is a god of the light, Peltos, Father of Light. Sir Zay has had many discussions after battles with the Sea Wolf, a leader of a human fighting force. Now in the city of Bastian, with his one time commander wounded beyond the touch of Sir Zay's healing hands, Sir Zay is starting a new path. Still in the battle against the dark, he has met up with new companions: Flick, a quiet dark Elf who seems to move with the Shadows; Stern whose name matches his demeanor, a monster hunter with a tragic story; and Father Tobias, a cleric of the Lady of the Hills, the Argent Lady. Our group has been brought to the Council of Five and tasked with retrieving manticore poison to fell the dire beast attacking the last city against the horde. 

Oddly, I actually have an entire page of notes I was trying to keep while playing. I've said that I want to grow into the skin of my character, and Sir Zay, raised since birth by his mother, a follower of Pholtus and a cadre of clerics, knows no other way to think. His father was not an adherent of that particular faith, and is one of the reasons, other than being the 8th child, he is wandering the world. He has a need to prove himself and his faith, and as Flick is a self-avowed atheist, I'll see if I can role play that without moving into parody or crossing any personal, real-life boundaries. So I'll have to verify with the player to make sure he understands it is all in-game. And in keeping with my general PG-13 approach to role playing games, we should be okay as that boundary also applies to the more philosophical elements of the game. And now I'll hop off that soap box. It was just a long-winded way of saying I am going to try and role play a cleric with a firm belief in his god and his attempts at adding more followers. Not that paladins do that as much as clerics, but that's my current version of the lawful good paladin I am playing.

Now, back to the character himself. Stats have all stayed the same (and oddly he is actually weaker than the other players in many ways, but I actually favor playing an underdog in some ways as it makes you think). And I do roll crappy when gaining hit points for leveling up.  

So we're still at strength 17, dexterity 14 and mind 14. He has +2 weapon mastery, soldier 2, aristocrat 4, Cleave, lay-on hands that cures 3d4, divine smite that acts as a silver weapon when attacking evil or undead if I read things correctly. He has a 23 hit points, armor class 17 and a single action point to use judiciously once per session. His weapons are as before - the great sword doing 2d6, the great ax for 1d10, a heavy cross-bos for 1d10 and a javelin for 1d6. He carries in addition to the regular adventuring gear equipment to maintain his armor. Each evening he meditates, and part of the meditation is a ritualistic yet effective cleaning and polishing of his armor. Not your traditional armor, it is more Asian styled similar to the image below but adorned with the sun and moon symbo; of Pholtus. It is, as noticed by his travelling companions, shiny though he does have a cloak should stealth be required. Or as stealthy as he can be wearing several pounds of chain armor.

Now I did say last weekend I'd try & get another Solo Traveller post in. So far there just has not been time and opportunity simultaneously. I have been working on painting the science fiction terrain tiles from my Kickstarter. I made my own wash that I am pretty happy with, and trying a few different things that the camera is not really picking up too well. The core set is the dark wash, then a heavy blue dry wash, then copper wash on top of that for the flat pieces and some other colors here and there. The AI control room will have the same dark wash, but trying for a lighter blue first layer of dry wash, then a light blue wash on that. The engine room has the dark wash and dark blue first dry wash, then a silver/blue wash on that for a more stainless steel approach. At least that was the idea. The xenogensis room is dark with a dark green wash to give us that Aliens vibe. I can use that in the Fantasy Trip as well I think. Below is my attempts at this so far. Going for a scuffed, well used Star Wars vs the pristine Star Trek ship style. None of my characters could ever afford the good ships :)

Corsairs: Session 7 - the capture of the Dancing Crestar And Epilogue

 Last episode, our crew had captured the Dancing Crester and maimed Captain Horn of the Alderil Empire, as well as almost mortally wounding the Lady Gysby of the Lathian States. Our first from Sleve did not help but at least did not kill her, while the Crester's ship doctor sewed up the captain. Ylervan pretty much wanted to just throw them off the mountain - the Ironblood justice is a bit more severe and final than that of Teboa.

By the time they get both ships docked, which required some manuevering for the Crester lacking both sails and rudder, Miss Baudelaire was quick to pillage the larger ship. I deemed this a store - a good take! They shuffled around the cargo as the rest of our adventurers went to the captain's cabin. Haven given their word (and I wish I could recall that term when you honorably surrender and will not cause problems later), Horn's primary concern was for his crew. He wanted to know that they would be safe and have a fair trial as they were following orders. Some discussions later, they name of Sir Wisym Pycey came up as the ultimate backer behind this particular mining operation, with the Lady Erin Gysby acting as the middle man, but getting her fair cut of the profits. 

Securing the ship, the group is called above board to the cries of the miners. Having wandered back up the mountain, but bereft of tools from the explosion in the mine and running for their lives. they wanted to know what they should do. While there was food for a few days, they were now essentially stranded on the mountain. It would be a few days hike to get back to some of the villages, so they were not helpless. Our crew decided not to do much with them, other than see if the other Dwarves would care to have a few more miners. These did appear to be people from outside of Teboa. However - despite their pleas of ignorance, they were still mining the repellium. Should they be brought back into town, they would be tried and convicted in the most likely case.

Ylervan makes a great sailing roll and the running repairs for the Fools Errand are completed and she is sky-worthy again, for at least relatively clear skies.

A bit later, the Fools Errand lifts off to revisit the Dwarven mine, carrying both the captain and the still unconcious Lady Gysby. They did think to check to see what she had on her person at this point, and found a small bag of coin and a well-creased map of an island, with the word home on it. As an aside, this may have been a poor reflection of One Piece's Nami: was she dealing with the Alderil Empire to free her home somehow? My original notes just indicate this was to be her last job and she wanted to retire a wealthy woman. Could be more to her than just a pretty face and a connection to the boss. Regardless, that may just be me after the fact. 

The Dwarves will take a few of the miners but not all. And I think this is where we pretty much stopped. And I can't entirely recall as my notes only consist of the 1 line, getting the ships docked.

Now, what will happen is that they will take the captain and Gysby to Coastone and drop them off with the constables. With their prize money they fix the ship, spending a week or two in port and living things up. Getting back to Chaydale and Sir Dayon Griffiths, they will be given ownership of the Fools Errand and somehow Sleve, our smooth talking wanderer, is made captain. Reading the rules on being a captain, it actually fits him in some ways. 

So we're set up for the next adventures in a very large sandbox. I'll have to generate some ideas sot see what they would like to do next.

And as per my previous post, the first supplement for Corsairs came out, and it really expands on ship options, sailing, and a few other things. The ship will become yet another character essentially with a few optional traits. What is cool is that they do present the swivel gun, which we already added to the ship./ But, she now has a reputation from defeating a larger ship that also had a big reputation from the war. 

I still need to read the entire supplement, but looks like we now have some better rules for giving chase, dealing with altitudes, fighting behemeths and a few other things. Made ne want to keep playing, despite my somewhat limited endurance for running games. 

At some point I'll see about doing a game review of both Corsairs and the supplement. Having not really done a game review before should be an interesting first try at any rate.

Sir Dayton Griffiths, our patron for the Fools Errand. There will be a letter of marque for our crew and they can chase adventure forthwith!

Sir Zay Mk II

 Sir Zay of Nyron was a D&D character I played for a few sessions and managed to get up to a 3rd level paladin. I do think the leveling up happened too fast but that is an artifact of the way our gaming club did things: we alternated 2 month sessions with 1 month sessions, and rarely went back into a previous game world. And most people prefer playing at a more heroic scale, so most of the games we either start higher than beginning characters or the leveling up gets accelerated. For me, it makes some things seem rushed but that is just the way the in-person group played. Now that we are remote playing via Skype mostly, and we've a smaller sub-group of the gaming club, we've changed how we do things a bit. Essentially still rotating games, but we play an adventure until it is done or at a good stopping place before moving to the next game. While we've not yet gone back to any previous games, the seeds have been planted as I got some favorable responses to running a Traveller game from where we left off. 

And of course, being allowed to transport the same character from the D&D to the microlite version means I do get to play Sir Zay, my somewhat self-doubting paladin.

So, starting with the pure D&D stats, which are a 3d6 range as is the microlite, we should be able to translate the stats 1:1. However, I'll also accommodate any class and racial bonuses so that the end result matches what I think it should be. There will be some GM feedback eventually. Note that for initial stats for a random character he is wanting us to to 2d6 + 6, so initial stats will be generally above the average for 3d6 of 10.5 (the average of any dice roll is given by ( ( Max Die Roll + 1 ) / 2 ) * Number of Same-Sided Dice )

• Strength: 17. While 17 is the range this character should end up, as he is a fighter and a +2 to strength, we'll put his strength at 15, then add in the +2 for the same 17. For the Fantasy Trip, 17 is really high for a character with a lot of experience. However, being 3rd level give him some experience, and I want to see about keeping this to a 40 point character. We'll go with the microlite pre-class adjustment of 15 but drop even more to 14, which is statistically not as high when comparing systems. But I do want to keep the character from being too unbeatable. But we'll bump that up later with the toughness skill to give him an effective 17 hit points as well.
• Dexterity: 14. Certainly well within our range. As there are no other bonuses and this fits within the range, we'll leave it as is for microlite. For the Fantasy Trip, 14 is pretty good, though with his plate mail it would drop his chances to hit. Seeing as he is a paladin I may give a bonus on his armor, so we'll drop his DX to 13.
• Mind (IQ in D&D & TFT): 14. As with the dexterity, for the microlite we'll leave that as is. For TFT, as I am aiming for a 40 point character is considered formidable (see p 16). We'll match this to the dexterity as they are the same in the D&D stats, so 13. This gives us the 40 point character.

The other D&D stats (constitution, wisdom and charisma) don't exist in the other games, though they can translate out as skills and backgrounds. 

And Sir Zay is human and carries quite a pedigree.

Looking over the fighter's background skills, we have thief, powder engineer, soldier, aristocrat and clergy. We can take thief and powder engineer off of our list of backgrounds. His primary background is aristocracy, so we have that at +3. Splitting up the 8 remaining points on really the 2 remaining base backgrounds makes those too high, so we'll do a +2 clergy as he has taken his vow, and a +2 to soldier as he is a soldier as he is a paladin for Pholtus. That leaves us 4 more points for background which I'll have to discuss with the GM as I am not entirely sure if we can pick from other race backgrounds. Though the humans are adaptable so get a +1 to all skill or task rolls.

For the Fantasy Trip, we obviously need the weapon skills. Sir Zay uses a longsword (Sword [2]), javelin (pole weapons [2]), heavy cross bow (bow [2]) and a battle axe (Ax/mace [2]) and we'll assume knife at 1, This is 9 of his 13 IQ points. Looking back at the original character sheet, he has a 16 charisma so we'll throw in charisma [2]. Laying on hands is a divine skill, but as magic uses ST (similar to the microlite rules), we'll just use the physickers ability [2] to mimic that a bit. The aid spell in the rules is too expensive both by dint of magic costing 3x the points to learn for a non-magic user, as well as too costly in terms of the character. We'll finally throw in 1 level of toughness [2] for a total of 15 points. Combined with his increased stats and my goal of the 40 point character with some experience, that is probably about right.

Microlite Sir Zay of Nyron

Strength: 15/17 with fighter bonus Dexterity 14 Mind 14

Background: Aristocrat +3, soldier +2, cleric +2

Skills: Martial (sword, bow, pole and ax weapons; a well rounded fighter). I think cleave may be the ax skill but unsure.  favored weapon being his longsword. He also carries a heavy cross bow, javelin, battle ax and a wide assortment of knives.

Fantasy Trip Sir Zay of Nyron

ST: 14 DX: 13 adjDX: 12 IQ: 13

Skills: Sword, Pole Weapons, Bow, Ax/Mace, Knife, Charisma, Physicker, Toughness

Armor: +2 DX chain armor (3) and toughness (1) for 4 protection

Weapons: 2 handed bastard sword (2d+2), javelin (1d-1), heavy cross bow (3d), battle axe (3d), knife (1d-1)

Background notes

This applies to all the game worlds this character gets played in.

Coming from a noble family, Sir Zay grew up learning both the martial arts and the aristocratic graces from an early age. His mother was an adherent of Pholtus, so young Sir Zay was also brought up to revere the god of light and spent many a day with the clergy as well. The 8th child of his father, and the 4th child from his father's 2nd and much younger wife, led Sir Zay to often be the butt of family jokes. Insecure and knowing he was an expendable noble, he trained exceptionably hard, and on his 18th birthday, left Nyron to explore the greater world, and to prove himself worthy of the family name by dint of courage and action, not mere accident of birth. 

His travels honed his martial arts, and, not neglecting his religious vows, also sought out chapels and clerics to further his devotion. He swore the Oath of Devotion and is bound to justice and order. This gives him some connection to Pholtus and he been known to smite down his enemies, sword flaming with the Light of Pholtus.

He is quite good looking and carries himself with a graceful ease no matter his surroundings. Sir Zay can charm most people and is an earnest listener as well. He cleans his chain mail daily when possible, so that it gleams even in dim light. His sword gleams with an inner light at times, and Sir Zay tends to be a bit more fastidious than most wandering arms men.  Quite good looking, Sir Zay gets along not only with nobility but also the common man. Being the youngest child, his elder siblings, especially those of his father's first wife, teased him mercilessly and he often took refuge in the vast kitchens and actually talked with the servants and learned that they too had lives of their own with their own hopes and dreams.

While he does have lands and titles and could wield significant political influence in the kingdom of Nyron, he is wandering distant lands and has left his holdings in the care of his siblings. There may or may not be a lot left upon his return.

New game world notes

So - how does our Sir Zay end up in the new game world? Last time the character was in use was in the early stages of the  Ravencroft adventure. As that was more than a year ago all I can recall is that we were just in the area where we could see the castle looming above us. One evening, Sir Zay, fully loaded with weapons, leaves the fire the heed the call of nature. One thing his adventures have taught his is always go fully prepared for anything. While in the midst of relieving himself, his is inadvertently passed through a portal, to end up urinating on a guard in the new world. Angry and surprised, the guard names our Sir Zay Pee Boy and sadly that nickname may persist. Bewildered but wanting to do right, Sir Zay will join the battle for good against the darkness. Does Pholtus hold any sway in this realm? Only the gods will know (and perhaps Sir Zay at some point).

Between games

 We finished off that arc of the Corsairs adventure last Monday. I'll be doing a recap over this 3 day weekend sometime with any luck. The next game is  microlite D&D style adventure, and I am managing to bring back Sir Zay. As I only got a few sessions with him in the actual D&D game, he will be transported via an odd gate to the new world. I just have to translate out his D&D stats, skills and all that to the new game system. So expect a post on that process as well!

I also got the first supplement to Corsairs, and it is very exciting! It greatly expands on ship options, from additional, more detailed guns and gun options, to more sailing rules and a few other things. My first go over really got me wanting to play more Corsairs! I will have to actually print this out myself when the game from Australia shows up (it is in the mail, but mail has been wonky, especially international mail). One of the interesting aspects is a ship's reputation. The Fools Errand gained 2 reputation points - 1 for defeating a larger ship, and another as that ship had a reputation from the wars (yes, retrofitting some of the new and optional rules). So the ship, like a Traveller ship, starts to become part character in of itself. 

It just takes time to develop those personality quirks and things, which is why I am so happy to bring back a character I only got to play for about 7 sessions. I want to play a character over years if possible, both game years and real time years. In college my Scout, Captain Nathan Brazil (hey, I was reading the Well World series when I started, and the name is cool) got in about 2 year of real time game play. I should really bring him back as an NPC or patron in a Traveller game - still have his character sheet around here someplace (looks over the piles of gaming material surrounding the desk like a palisade and realizes it may require some really good navigation or lore rolls to find).  And it is okay to play the same character in different games: I could translate our paladin Sir Zay to the Fantasy Trip (and I might at that, but at a 3rd level D&D character he is certainly not a 32 point beginning character).  

And (stream of consciousness here) I like to be able to figure out who my characters are. I generally play variations of myself, or what I'd like myself to be. I don't think I've ever played an evil character, or a malicious one. The farthest I got from me was that Traveller Marine character: gung-ho, shoot first and let other people ask the questions. She was cool - the game misjumped into D&D (the GM wanted to play that using the characters we started in a Traveller game). They ended up popping out next to a dragon, who was quite angry. So I was buzzing about in powered combat armor with grav belts and a fusion gun. The dragon & I both died leaving some large craters in the ground, but a goddess (and I cannot recall after almost 40 years!) liked what she saw & my character came back. With wings so she could still fly!  I still have the mini I bought for that (think it is really an angel type but close enough!) Those are the gonzo things I need to let loose with more often, instead of playing a somewhat idealized version of me. Which is interesting coming from me as I do complain about people playing the same character in every game. Hmm, a little bit of Freudian projection there? Or was that Jung? Sorry - 40 years since I took any psychology classes as well, though it turns out when I looked at my transcript a few years back I was pretty close to having a minor in psychology. Never noticed at the time. See - stream of consciousness!

Anyway, this is mostly a "filler" post. I hope to get at least 2, maybe 3 posts done this weekend:

• Sir Zay conversion to the microlite setting, along with some background notes. probably try my hand at a Fantasy Trip conversion as well
• Corsair end game recap, which includes some post-game things and options for our next round
• Solo Traveller. no, I've not forgotten it! Just seems to be a lack of time and inclination simultaneously!

And I hope everyone has a great weekend, and for those of us lucky enough for a 3 day weekend, a nice 3 day weekend!

Corsairs Session 6: Discovery

 Session 6 got a bit explosive and we had some action this time around. Sleve & Sinnea spy on the miners a bit, then the group regroups to decide on their next step.

They send the runner back through the caves, intending to have a two pronged attack on the now verified repellium mining operation. Waiting was a nail biting experience, or should have been - being a game it magically happened in a few minutes while I rolled a couple of agility rolls for the cabin boy for his solo return trip. Over sink holes and past pissed off fire imps. The players never saw that part and there were enough successes that I went with that. Otherwise, Ordo, Ylervan and Sleve may still be waiting for some sign of the attack.

Finally, the Fools Errand comes round and fires off a fulisade against the moored Dancing Crester and doing a hull and gun deck hit. The attack made the sailors and miners rush to the front of the mine, and that's when our group set up the dynamite. I use the sailing skill as the general purpose engineering roll, and Ylervan made a fantastic roll for the placement of the pony keg of black powder. Setting a short fuse, they light the keg and charge out, yelling about a cave-in in the back of the mine. The Lady Grysby is shouting orders to free the Crester while the captain is also yelling out orders to return fire. At this point, the explosion happens and the miners are running for their lives down the mountain, while our group heads up the mountain to get a better vantage. Except for our brute sailor fighter who charge the Lady. Which ended up being a huge mistake as she is really good between the Steady Wind bonus plus the well-balanced sabers she carries. The dread fighter sailor was no match and was cut down in a single round of combat. Wonder if he was wearing a red shirt?

Ordo at this point is cutting down the sailors attempting to release the final mooring line. Being a crack shot, he kills the first sailor on the docks in a single shot. He also manages to kill off two more as they attempt from the deck to cut the line. By this time there is a second ship combat round (a ship combat round is 15-20 minutes, and I did not see a personal combat round, but going with a vague "something a lot less than 15-20 minutes to just use the timing for plot advancement). The Crester manages to get a shot off and hits one of the sails and the gun deck. The Errand manages to hit the sails, another gun deck and a crew. So they are doing a lot better as I was cutting the gun rating in half for the Crester as half her guns are facing the dock and unable to fire. Finally the Lady Grysby cuts the line herself as Ordo maims the captain, leaving the first mate Rey now in charge. Still feeling as though they have a good fighting chance, the Crester finally moves off the dock and starts to turn about for combat with all guns being available. 

Seeing her ship leave, the Lady starts running down the mountain as well, knowing she is out-numbered from our small group. Ordo manages to actually maim her despite her athleticism as opposing dice. So she falls on the ground and almost bleeds out before our group can get down there to administer first aid. Which did nothing but at least did not kill her - the healing rules when a person is maimed can actually kill the patient. Realistic and terrifying for our resident slacker healer Sleve. 

The final round of ship combat had the Errand take out the last sail and rudder of the Crester. Being unable to steer, the Alderil sailors give their word to stop hostilities. And this was the end of session 6.

There was more adventure this time, and I think we handled the ship and personal combat a lot better (see, practice does pay off!). I still need to get better organized, but I did print out a ship sheet to track the battle there. I do like the ship combat mechanics: simple and while pretty random in some ways, it makes for a fast combat which the point for this RPG. Some of the game may have been faster had I the printed copy, which is in the mail at this point. But I'll have it for the next time we play!

Next session we'll wind up a few things, then I believe we'll be playing another game with another game master. I'll post my feelings about the game once we get our first adventure completed, but after a couple of rough starts I do enjoy the game.

And just had a thought: I could bring this game into my Fantasy Trip world: sudden magical portal created by a mad scientists. I've had Traveller characters end up in D&D. These characters would not be your 32 point starting characters though, but probably at least 35 or 36. But as always, I digress...

Next Traveller Game?

If the group wants to continue from where we left off, I have ideas...and I think this is the 4th game I will have lead since getting back into gaming. Lets see: played with two friends at my house [1], then did a game with part of the gaming group [2] then did the Big Wreck [3]. So yep, this would be the 4th game, and perhaps a continuation of the 3rd if people want to do that.

 

I also have deck plans for this salvage ship which is lurking behind the Big Wreck. George has been keeping an eye on it.

We're about to probably finish the Corsairs game next week, and I get to play for a few weeks. For some reason I can only lead a game for so long, but I need to practice to get better (so true of well, everything). 

I may try & bring one of the first people I refereed with a few years back, just need to help him a bit with his Skype so we can talk. We could even just use new people entirely and do something else, but as I do have those giant maps of the Rift (which don't do a whole lot of good over the internet exactly!) I do want to use them a bit more. And all the far-too-many minis I keep getting.

Finally - as a personal note this pandemic / working from home / loss of a lot of contact / worries about things I have no control over have been starting to drag me down a bit. Gaming is supposed to help me get out of that, so perhaps I just need to game more! Hopefully North Carolina will lift the gym ban as I think that may help as I can only do so much with the equipment I have. Just have to wear a mask and wipe things down before and after. Going to be a different experience for sure.

Sunday Painting

 Spent a little time painting today, and brought out some old minis to see if there has been much of an improvement. In some cases, yes, others no. I tend to rush too much sometimes and then the paint goes in places it should not get to. I've bought a couple of the learn to paint series from Reaper, and if I actually pay attention and follow the directions, I do well enough. I just have to learn to not be impatient. 

I also noticed that yes, minis are getting bigger. There are several blog posts out there indicating that, but if I take out my old 80's D&D minis, it looks like I now have a bunch of halfling warriors and things. And the centaurs will not really scale well with the new ones I am getting. The one in the middle is from an 80's set, the one on the left a Reaper Dwarf and the one on the right a mini from Heroic Townsfolk from Ryan Borgeson (and I followed the next as well as he produces some interesting characters you are not likely to find in other places. And Kickstarter). So the warrior in the middle is either a child playing dress up or a halfling now :)  

Fortunately I don't really care too much about the scale. And until we get back to a table, probably next year, these only see my desk top. 

I do see I have a lot of minis that, once painted, I do need to figure out how to store and get access to later. I did, as recommended by a good friend and excellent painter, get a bunch of tubs. So for those are for the scenery: I have a bin for the connectors, one for SF walls and SF floors and one for the large set pieces I seem to be accumulating (and must stop until I see if I actually use the things!). I also use fish lure boxes for the minis, and while I've got one for my Traveller ships and most of the 15mm minis from way, way back, the fantasy stuff is a mixed bag. Going to have to get a label maker, and start sorting them by groups so I can find things. 

Sort of reminds me of what I keep telling myself but apparently do not pay attention to: too much of a good thing often means you actually use it less. My wife & I spoiled our child (who fortunately knows he was spoiled) with so many toys that he never wanted to play with them. Growing up, while my siblings and I had a fair number of toys, it was not the sheer quantity my son had. We played with what we had with a lot more imagination. Not to be too self analysing here, but I often fear I am doing the same thing now. Surrounding myself with too many of these means I may not want to use my own imagination and just let a mini be what I need it to be: I need to have the exact right mini. And that leads to a slippery slope. And as for painting, I just don't know where to start as there is a sheer overload of plastic and metal already here, not to mention that in the next 8 months there will be a veritable mountain between the next Heroic Townsfolk set, the 200+ characters in the Fantasy Set 1, and the few hundred in my massive overbuy of Reaper minis in their last Kickstarter (and I was not the worst as I did not get one of everything but I do go back & check out the pledge manager, thinking maybe one more thing. Then I slap myself and shut down the browser).

Corsairs Session 5: Into the Secret Tunnels

 The next morning, our group gets up good and early to look at the cave entrance and decide what to do. There was a fair amount of discussion as to who to bring, and whether this was to be an invasion force or more of a scouting missions. They finally ended up with the main characters: Ordo, Sleve & Ylervan were leading the crew. The player for Miss Baudelaire has dropped out for a bit, so the quartermaster is staying aboard the ship to keep an eye on things there. Along with our characters, Sinea the Grassrunner is tagging along as are 4 of the crew. We have the light bearer, the armsman, one carrying a pony keg of dynamite and the cabin boy, who is fleet of foot in case they need to have a message run back to the Dwarf mine entrance. 

The entrance is large enough for almost two across, and Ordo does not need to stoop. Following the map, the first off-branch they can smell something burning, and via several good observation rolls, notice dragonette droppings. As noted in the rules, dragonettes are used widely by corsairs but need to be trained from birth. Finding eggs is hazardous but can be richly rewarding. They passed the side tunnel on the way in, but perhaps they have noted it for their return trip: having a pet dragonette could be interesting, and if they manage to collect some eggs, rewarding financially!

Continuing, they encounter a sink hole in the tunnel. Not being a leaper, Ylervan scales the walls which were dry at this spot, and using his sailing skill fastens a rope to help with the others. The rest use their acrobatics and successfully cross the first obstacle. The tunnel narrows around a bend, and Ylervan is leading the way. An impetuous fire imp is apparently quite angry and attacks our crew shortly thereafter. I only rolled for one to show up despite a nest around the corner. It was also in a tight bend in the corner where the imp attacked Ylervan. It took a couple of rounds to kill the squirmy beast, and Ylervan took a few fiery scratches in the rapid battle. Some first aid from the resourceful Sleve and Ylervan is back in full fighting trim. They also notice natural repellium deposits starting to show up around them when they look carefully. 

They continue on and we finally come to the end of the natural tunnels and the start of what looks to be a mine. It is blocked by some broken columns and timbers that appear fairly old, and looking into the mine they see yet another large sink hole, about 15 feet across.

And this is where we left session 5. It was a bit shorter: we started late and ended early because people have real lives outside of the game. I know, shocking! And there was a fair amount of discussion as to what to wear inside the tunnels in the event they run into the Alderal Empire miners or crew. They finally ended up in corsair style clothing, nothing to indicate that they are anything official or threatening. 

While not quite a hex crawl, I did have several things planned out that seemed to basically work. After I finally found the map with notes: I actually put it in the notebook I am using so it took me longer to find as I was looking all around my far too messy office area (office/computer/gaming stuff. I am surrounded by Lego, games and usually a cat or two. It can be a bit chaotic). I think the combat went pretty well, though I want to start describing things better, to make it more interactive with the players and give us at least an internal visual display. Theater of the mind works well over Skype if we can describe things well enough. And we do share images on the chat channel. So there is some shared visual media, and occasionally even audio. 

The mechanics for fighting I think went pretty well, though we've been having someone else roll the difficulty dice. I think at an actual table the player would roll them all, but being remote we're trying to get everyone a chance to roll some dice I think. We did not discuss that, it just started organically.

The map is using some of the Loresmith tiles I've bought just to goof around with. I've been showing them just the section they are in, which is actually easier on a computer than having the map on the table as I just cut & paste the section of the moment. 

Next session will have contact with the other side of the mine, and we'll see what happens there. If they had brought more of the crew I may have tried using the boarding combat process, but as they only have 8 people along, of which only 4 count as crew, if we do that I fear unless they get really good rolls they will get decimated. We'll see what happens next.

And yes, there was a bit of a gap between sessions. We've had a few real life things, and for us, family is more important than gaming (how much may vary depending on who, and when, you ask!). And while we've played with 1 person out, when we hit 2 or more, as that is half the group, we either skip or do something else. I almost got a one shot in to test the Lamia's Labyrinth but we decided not to do that. I am still working on that, bringing in bits and pieces of Kickstarter zines I seem addicted to. How that will play will be interesting as well. 

Secret Tunnels, Part 2

 Made a Dwarf map though not entirely happy. I may end up hand-drawing next time, then scanning in for an actual hand-made looking map. But I do have a few things of note on this version.

One, there are general Dwarf runes (actual Tolkien-based according to the place I downloaded that font from) for some of the major areas. But then I think each clan or group would have their own private symbols indicating ore and whatever else Dwarves look for in various caverns. Sort of like sports symbols where each team had their own set (going from what I've heard as I don't watch sports and m volleyball days are now far behind me. Though I did dust off my bike and did a short bike ride last weekend - I may start that up again as it may not hurt my ankle with the burst achilles. Which really hurt when it snapped a few years ago - I fell flat on my face in the gym). And the final part - a small wyvern image in one spot and a larger dragon in another, woodcut style (had to set the background to transparent but looks okay). I also feel Dwarves, like most fantasy races, like to embellish the maps.

A series I am reading has a really nice map. The Tales of Pell are similar to Terry Pratchert in that they use fantasy to poke fun of fantasy as well as the real world. Regardless, the map in front has a nice sea dragon and a note that "Here there be dragons. No, really, they are here" and next to the wyvern is a hand-written note to please feed the wyverns. And the map is nice - I really like books with maps in them. 

I'm also working on the encounters. Right now there are only 2 animal encounters and a couple of "traps" that are not really traps but rather natural mine conditions. Then we have to see about the miners. Depending on the size of the group that goes into the mine, we may just try it with the boarding action rules. Which means I need to re-read those rules again to see if I can get it all straight in my head. Just too many game systems!

I also forwarded the map to our one Dwarf (and they make fun of me as I can never pronounce the name correctly for poor Ylervian (and not sure that is even the correct spelling but too lazy to go back & recheck. Maybe later). 

Speaking of game systems, as a blurb here one of my players ran a Delve game last year and it was a blast. Finally broke down and bought the 2nd edition deluxe color hardback (I tend to want the good stuff when I can, though lately I've just been doing PDFs as the pandemic has pinched my finances more than I like). I've glossed over most of the book and really want to play another game. The rules are fun and it is a bit more dire than most fantasy games, more collaboration between players and the GM. Though we've had a good bit of collaboration in our Corsair game as well!

Secret Tunnels

 Doing a bit of game prep for the next chapter of Corsairs - Secret Tunnels!  Of course, getting carried away playing with some of the Loresmith tiles. They don't exactly scream steampunk mining operations. However, I am going with some natural cave tiles then there are the wildgrowth tiles which will be the repellium mining areas. Perhaps repellium is that greenish hue before processing.

Of course, the players won't get that exact map - I'll see if I can make a more hand-drawn style, perhaps with some Dwarvish runes, to share with the group. And it may not map 100% correctly despite the Dwarves reputation for engineering prowess in the world of Teboa. 

I'm also backing a Kickstarter for some more tiles for the hex mapping software I have. Not as fancy as Campaign Cartographer, but it does make nice dungeon crawl style maps, or hex crawls really. It is more of an overland style mapping system. I did not follow the 1st Kickstarter but got that package in a Humble Bundle for world building - lots of stuff I need to actually go back & read to hopefully make a better world! As I really enjoy world building :)

It is Secret Tunnels as one of the players is basing his character (very accurately as well!) from a character in the Last Airbender series. I did not realize that until I was re-watching the 1st series to get my son & I back up to speed to be able to watch the 2nd series, Korra. I like to start from the beginning when I can.

The map below probably needs some notes: a couple of sections are probably a LOT longer so this is not entirely to scale. And Corsairs is not a dungeon dive type of RPG, but I will stick a few encounters in there, mostly natural ones but somewhere along the line they will meet up with the miners. 

But it is fun making pretty maps. The tiles are really more oriented to making battle maps. While the squares are pretty standard for most RPGs, I can probably stick a hex layer on top to make it compatible with the Fantasy Trip.

And I've been doing a bit of painting and cheap dungeon crafting. I really want to get back to face to face gaming and move minis on the table and roll dice with friends. Printing up stone walls and wrapping around baking soda and small cans makes for nice turrets or curved walls. Or lay flat for the floor. Most of the stuff is (badly but getting better!) painted by me except for those 4 columns with the torches - those are WizKids pre-painted columns. I seem to be making small scenes at my desk. And huh - seems like cat hair gets everywhere! My cats tend to sit on my desk a lot when I am trying to work. Because cats.

Corsairs Session 4: At the Mountains of Coastone

Hearing that the Dancing Crester had left port a couple of hours earlier, our crew loads up and with a good sailing roll, start to the north towards the marked mine and hopefully where the Alderil Empire's ship is heading. A few hours into the journey and our man Sleve just manages to catch sight of the larger ship far ahead. From her post in the crows nest, the newest companion Sieag MacGill'Oig barely sees them. Sailing nonchalantly as possible our crew pursues the ship flying much lower than the other ship. At one point the captain of the Crester, feeling something on the wind perhaps, turns to starboard, but another good sailing roll and the Fools Errand is apparently not seen and the larger ships returns to her former bearing. Below the ships the terrain turns more mountainous and the winds start getting more turbulent between the cooling air and the mountains spilling air through the valleys and peaks. The occasional mountain road is visible below, with a few small towns and hunters huts.

Getting to early dusk, the larger ship furls her sails and docks into a sky pier hanging off the mountain. The Fools Errand moves to a higher altitude and watch as barrels and crates are off-loaded, a tall woman in black apparently giving the orders.

Deciding that a closer observation is needed, and with a really good draft for sailing, our two nomad climb nimbly down the the swaying rope ladder to spy upon the mine entrance, the ship sailing back off around the peak and out of sight of the mine. 

Young Sineag and Sleve watch a couple of hours, seeing mine carts leave the mine and their loads transferred to the ship. Too far away to see enough detail, the quarried ore does seem lighter than it should. A good portion of the ships crew is helping move and load the ore on board the large ship.

Seeing that there is not much more to be seen, Sleve signals to the ship with a flat of his blade, somehow managing to convey a tune with the knife flashing. With not quite as good a sailing roll from our Dwarf, young Sineag does succeed in climbing the twisting rope ladder, but loses here change purse in the process. Sleve managed an almost miraculous catch and snags the purse from the air,  returning the coins to the little grass runner. 

Back on board, the decide that they will go to dock at the Dwarf mine, perhaps an hour's flight from where they are. Staying aloft near mountains at night is not, in the captain's opinion, a good choice to having a ship stay intact. Flying in, they are greeted by other Ironbound from the Anvil Aerie, and food and drinks are exchanged. The mining chief has heard of secret tunnels that may connect the old repellium mine to various other mines. A female Dwarf's grandfather mined and knows a bit about the tunnels and draws a map of what she believes will aid our crew to getting into the no longer deserted repellium mines from a different direction.  They retire for the night, a restful night for Ylerva, to reset in a sound Dwarf bed under the earth, Sleve and Sineag comfortable wherever they are, and Ordo pulling two beds together to get some restless sleep.

While this session seemed to go okay, it was not quite as exciting as the previous session. A few key discoveries were made: the old repellium mine is being used, the Alderil Empire ship at least is beingused, and that ship has twice the gun decks of the Fools Errand so our group is being cautious, much to the Captain's delight. Looks like there may be a bit of a mine exploration after all, though no treasures or goblins. However - there very well could be dragonettes or other small creatures that live in the mountains. Or even some not so small. But I'll have to see why a creature would be living in there as this is steam punk, not fantasy, and creatures don't just live in caverns waiting for adventurers to feed their bellies!

One thing that came up and is not addressed in the rules are height rules. Corsairs is not a tactical game, so ship combat and pursuit is fairly abstract, designed to let you play a swashbuckling sort of game (which we've only had one such swashing, so need to add more!). We just allowed that watching for a smaller ship flying below you was less likely to be seen as you are not looking below as much for ships. And they were way out yonder. The other captain almost saw them at one point, but despite good observation skills, and also due to the good sailing roll on the ship, he dismissed things as just something in his eye or a flying animal. I did read the pursuit rules, and while I think they will work when they are in active pursuit, following a flying ship and trying not to be seen is more complicated (and brings up the similarities to the whole Traveller ships are giant heat sources and can't hide in space). We winged it and it worked well enough. 

And my son & I are rewatching the Avatar so we can watch Korra (I like to start at the beginning, and even though we've seen the show a few years ago, it was a few years ago and we don't recall all the specifics). Regardless, I now want to bring in flying lemurs and 10 ton six legged flying bison. I've a feeling the Cahill Grasslands may be a good place for flying bison, but lemurs do seem more forest or jungles. May be some of the forests surrounding the mountains will have flying lemurs.

Of Spaceships and Volume

As I back every one of Ryan Wolf's Kickstarters (I did not do the first, but his second, was the Grendel, which is really the classic Beowulf. And so started one of my few auto-backs! And I did go back & get the 1st one as well I believe) I have quite the stash of starship posters, PDFs and minis. For the longest time I was guessing at the tonnage based on squares. Never a good thing, and it turns out I was usually way off. 

As he supplies the standard tonnage, it is actually a pretty simple calculation to go from his displacement to Traveller displacement tonnage.

First, 1 ton is 100 cubic feet. This is 2.831685 cubic meters, and when dividing by 13.5, gives you .2098 Traveller tons per 1 "standard" ton. So simply multiply his tonnage by .2098 and you get Traveller displacement.

dTons = 0.2098 x tonnage

So looking back at the Cygnus from a few games back, I have to adjust everything as the tonnage went from 1000 tons to 1800 tons. That affects the base cost as well as the monthly costs. I'm going to see if I can still manage to get through Classic High Guard (though it does not have an 1800 ton ship, 2000 is what I'll work the components on), Mongoose 2e High Guard (which I bought and briefly read over but have never deigned a ship with) , Cepheus and T5 which will require quite a bit of page flipping. Though there is this T5 ship builder spreadsheet over on COTI if I can figure that out. Though I really prefer going through the actual printed books.

And the general information based on all versions is this is a TL 13 Lab Ship with jump 3 and maneuver 3 and 8 weeks worth of power plant fuel. With fuel scoops and a fuel purifier this ship can last months without having to be at a port to purchase fuel. At that point, each version has its own layer of things, from various armors to specifically having med and science labs. The hull is probably a close structure which is partially streamlined. 

And after walking through the Mongoose version. I think I'll do the Cepheus and T5 in their own post as well. Cepheus I think is more LBB 2 style, but could be wrong. And I am not entirely sure I have those rules: I did a bunch of PDFs in a bundle and I know the core rules are there as I've used them to play with character generation, but do not recall if ship building rules are part of that.

Classic High Guard

Probably not perfect but good enough for gaming. Minor updates to the tonnage for fuel and all that. The classic High Guard does not really give a lot of options for things like labs and medical bays, but it was for running ship battles more than role playing. I just like making custom ships!

This graphic was done, by the way, via Google Draw. A few tables getting formatted just so. Tried to recreate one of the many classic ship forms. If anyone asks, I could make a blank drawing that I could share so you could fill in the blanks yourself. That was one thing Classic really had going for it: lots of forms. While not for everyone, I really like them and use them often as handouts and chrome while playing. Old school paper!

T5

Using the T5 spreadsheet these are the initial results. What is missing is the armor info which I added in the 2nd paragraph coming from the spreadsheet.
Using a 1800 Dton streamlined hull, it has a J Drive N2, a M Drive C9, and a P Plant N2 giving performance of jump-3 and 3 g acceleration. There is fuel tankage of 583.2 Dton, enough for 8 weeks and 1 jump-3.
Controls consists of eleven control consoles, nine operating consoles, and a m/3 computer with Ergonomics 2.
There are seven sensors: a communicator, a commplus, two EMSs, a scope, a neutrino sensor, and a grav sensor.
Crew accomodations consists of 4 staterooms with a Comfort of 4 and two crew barracks.
There is a carried craft: a Shuttle in a hangar.
Cargo capacity is 722 Dton. The ship requires a crew of 14: a pilot, an astrogator, an engineer, a maintenance, five specialists, and a flight crew. The ship costs MCr 446.65.

Using a charged frame, we have an armor value of 52. Coated with reflec we have 1300 vs Heat/Beam. The outer armor is an anti-radiation layer (AV 26, 260 vs bast, 260 vs H/B, 1300 vs Rad, 0 vs EMP) and we have another anti-EMP layer of armor (AV 26, 260 vs Blast, 260 vs H/B, 0 vs rad and 130 vs EMP). This ship is designed to get up close to potentially hazardous areas. 

Now I may go back through this by the book just to see just how complicated the T5 rules are. There were several discussions as I recall over on COTI (my main source of Traveller outside of the few blogs I do read). T5 uses fill-forms to help. And I want to say there is an iOS ship builder out there. I'll devote another post to the book, step by step, creation of the Cygnus class lab ship.

Mongoose 2e

Having yet another spreadsheet, we get something as below. This spreadsheet does not generate a nice blurb. And I think I broke it, so a quick walkthrough of the 2nd edition High Guard Book.

First, the hull. A close structure hull displacing 1800 tons gives us +10% hull points and a -10% cost. So Cr50K/ton = MCr90 but with our 10% discount, MCr81. Armor is always good as this ship will be exploring strange new worlds. Using the standard Crystaliron armor available at TL 10 it requires 1.25% of our ship or 13.6 tons and costs MCr4.05/armor point. Lets put 2 armor points on there for 27.2 tons and MCr8.1 added to our costs. There are some additional hull options available. The emissions absorption Grid sort of sucks in electronic emissions, and stacks with stealth (and we won't get into the whole giant heat source is sort of hard to hide in space discussion). While not directly something a lab ship needs and interesting, I think we'll pass on that. Heat shielding, on the other hand, would allow us to get the ship closer to stars and other hot phenomena. It also helps us crash land safer if our grav drives go out. Cost is 0.1MCr per ship so MCr180 to add our heat shield. Same for radiation shielding. At MCr.25/ton this is MCr450. This is pretty expensive! The remaining options, stealth, improved stealth and reflect do not seem to apply to our ship mission.

Next, our drives. We want Man3 which will take 3% of our hull or 54dTons and cost MCr104. Our Jump 3 drive takes 7.5% of our ship or 135dTons and costs us MCr202.5. Using a TL12 fusion power plant we will need to have at least the following power points:

• basic ship functioning 20% of tonnage: 360
• maneuver drive is 10%: 180
• jump is 10%: 180

As it is unlikely we'll be using the jump and maneuver drives, that gives us a minimum of 540 energy points. At TL12 we get 15 points per ton, so a 36 ton power plant would cover that. As I want extra for the various sensors and bays (and not sure if they technically take energy points) I'll just round to 40dTons for the power plant at a cost of MCr40. 

The drives of course need fuel. Manuever drive fuel is part of the power plant fuel, so nothing there. Jump is still the classic 10% per jump, so 30% is needed. Power plants need 10% per size for 4 weeks, and as I want 8 weeks that would be 4 tons for 4 weeks and 8 for 8 weeks for a total of 548dTons for fuel. 

Our bridge based on its size requires 40dTons at a cost of MCr20. 

We need a computer for all this, and being a lab ship, it probably has more that are specific to the labs. But our central computer is a TL 13 Computer/25 at a cost of MCr10. It takes no direct tonnage. There are options for a hardened core or one that specializes in jump to coordinate fleet jumps. Neither is required for our lab ship. 

Sensors are next on the list, and this is where our shopping trip may get even more expensive! We'll go whole hog and get the Advanced. Though this is a TL 15 sensor suite, the original story behind the ship is that it is a Navy/Scout joint operation and the Navy runs at TL15 as much as possible. It also requires 6 energy points, which as I bumped up means we can run the full suite while maneuvering about and still have the full ship functions. MCr5.3 and includes densomiter, jammers, Lidar, NAS (Neural Activity Sensors - I've got Grand Census and the portable version is described in there) and radar.

No weapons though we have 2 50 ton bays and several hard points. This is a decommissioned ship released for private use via some high-standing political influence and has no weapons. 

Optional systems. Though not sure how crew is optional! At a minimum, we'll need a pilot, an astrogator, 3 engineers (I like to "over-engineer" and one may be for the shuttle as well). a medic. There are also specialists as this is a lab ship. Our minimal crew is 6 with room for several specialists depending on the mission. The staterooms are defined by the deck plans, and has 6 big staterooms and two barracks-style that can contain 4 each. Plus what looks to be 2 brig cells but could be repurposed as small staterooms. 

All the rest is cargo. So, let's tally up and see what we have.

Cost: MCr 1,100.4. Just over a billion credits!

Tonnage: 1800 - (armor) 27.2 - (man) 54 - (jump) 135 - (power) 40 - (fuel) 548 - (bridge) 40 = 955. 

Now there are several more options left to add. Being a science ship, we'll add a sensor station for MCr0.5 and 1dTon. There will be a cargo crane x2 (one per side) for about 1dTon and MCr1. We have an advanced drone bay for 1Dton and MCr 0.8. Throw in the advanced signal processing that also takes 2 energy points, MCr8 and 2Dtons. Our very Star Trek like Life Scanner Analysis Suite requires 1 EP and takes 1dTon and MCr4. Technically the TL14 version is not available but refer back to the Navy/Scout program above.  The hanger is technically a full hanger so takes 60dTons and costs MCr12, We have 3 labs on board at about 15dTons each by counting the squares, so total of 45dTons and MCr12, The med bay is part of the biology lab. There is also a gym that looks to be about 15dTon but that cost will be minimal. There is actually another 30dTons for common areas at least

So the new tally:

MCr 1,100.4 + MCR40.3 = MCr1,140.7

Remaining displacement = 955 - 154 = 801dTons. Which still seems way too high - looking at the cargo bay areas, we have 7x9 squares so about 30 tons, plus an upper area. We'll just make those 6 meter ceilings and double height, plus there is more cargo area on the platform above. And the shuttle bay is definitely taller than your 3m ceiling. 

Probably more storage areas throughout the ship but this is close enough for us.

Next post or two, I'll see if I can muddle through the T5 process and see if I even have the Cepheus version. 

Crafty Dungeons

I have been baking a bit more than usual the last few months, just like a lot of people. I was about to throw out a baking powder can when I realized I could get crafty. It can be both a small scale dungeon tower and storage! 

First I primed the can, thinking I'd do something with it like that. Then I realized it would be easier to find a good texture and just make a wrapper for it. 

So voila, I can use this as a watch tower, an interesting wall or something. I also printed up a science fiction wrapper. I may end up cutting a hole in it and adding a door. I have several SF doors from a Kickstarter a few years back that I never used. If I can get a fantasy door (and I have a few, as well as a few on the way) that are the same size, it may be a reusable project.

I really miss table top games. Playing over Skype is not the same. 

My coworkers and I did manage to play a Zombicide game on Tabletop Simulator. While not able to share a pizza, the art assets were really well done, and it was about as close as you can get without being there. It may be a bit closer if we had complete 3D immersion and haptic feedback, but it was better than playing solitaire!

I may have to add a cheap crafting label if I make more crafty style play toys. 

And in looking at the barbarian I realized I never quite finished painting him up! Weekend projects - paint a couple more minis, work a bit on the Traveller Ruby program so I am not ghosting my COTI friend, maybe work on my own Traveller software again, and we need another episode of my SOLO Traveller game. And I need to prep for Monday's game as well! So much to do!

Traveller Geomorphs v2

Robert Pearce of Yet Another Traveller Blog has released his updated geomorphs book. A PDF with dare I say delicious mapping goodness inside. He has added end pieces and aerowings and a few other things to help round out ship, building or just play general map making plans. See the post here.

There is a throne room which honestly could be used for fantasy games. These geomorphs are not Traveller specific and could be used for a wide variety of gaming.

These connectors are cool, but now I could use them for that scene in Star Wars in the Death Star. In fact, we could create the location scenes, enough to replay the Death Star sequence. I would not be surprised if that was indeed one of the plans, as there are also large hangar decks. 

Anyway, cool things. 

I've also bought more fantasy specific geomoprhs from Loresmyth. While not sure I'll get to use them a whole lot, there was this sale...and if I ever do get into more commercial style of dungeon creation (who knows, the cost of entry is so low but not sure I could deal with the inevitable nasty comments). I've actually used one for the "cover" of the Lamia's Labyrinth.

Having a hole in the sand can be a good thing!

Corsairs: Session 3 - On to Coastone

Having left Altes on a cargo ship, our valiant crew launches and sails off to Coastone, a stone city on the western edge of Teboa, at the foot of the eponymous Coastone Mountains and Lake. Looking back at the wood and daub houses of Brawicke, they see an ill-dressed man, our Mr. Altes, standing on the dock and watching the ship sail off. Unbeknownst to our crew, the cargo ship sailor took the coin then just dumped Edmund into the trash pile behind a warehouse. Upon waking the next morning in his knickers and a bad hangover from the drugs, he scavenged some clothes before heading back and seeing the Fools Errand sail off. With Sleve scrubbing the decks in Alte's fine clothing. 

Slightly larger than Brawicke, Coastone boasts 10 sky ship docks. As they approach, the winds behind them a giving a gentle nudge into a perfect dock, the Harbormaster greets the crew. 

"Fine dock, lads, fine dock indeed. Yea Ironbound, when ye take to the skies, do make foine sailors." Pleasantries aside, they do find that there can be guides to the mountains available here, and the Cows Manger off the Merchant Square is a "foine" place to drink and eat. Ordo takes the Harbormaster aside, and handing him a coin, asks to be notified should any ships come from Brawicke. The Harbormaster agrees to send a runner should a ship come in, but as always our crew is a bit vague as to where they will be. Miss Baudelaire was taken with the vapors and stayed aboard, splicing the main brace, e.g., getting a round for the crew (the player was unavailable this evening).

There are three or four other ships there, including one from the Roche Empire as well as a huge size 3 ship from the Alderil Empire. With the truce, the countries are having visitors but there is tension when the outsiders come to town.

Heading into town, and talking with some of the towns people, they find that the Melting Drum tends to have Dwarves, so they head for that tavern. Upon entering, and noticing a stage, Ordo makes a bet with the attractive barmaid that "our man Sleve here can play a pretty tune for our first round". Taking him up on that bet with flirtatious eyes, Sleve commences a wondrous solo, rolling no less than an 8 draft! The crowd is tapping their feet, coins are flowing, and the bartender seems quite happy with the transfer of funds for ales. 

Ylervan notices a Dwarf in the corner, and walks over to talk with him to see about guides in the mountains, trusting the Ironbound more than most people. Brandit Beastgut is drinking down some fine regellian draught in a mug bigger than his head, and welcomes the sight of a fellow Ironbound.

Getting a matching mug on the house due to Sleve's plucking his oversized lute, Ylervan finds that while Brandit is not a miner, his cousin Yuzzick Trollrock is, and has the family mine up in the Coastone Moutnains. A bit unstable, the two Dwarves head to the bar where Ordo is talking it up with the bartender, and also manages to fine that the very flirtatious barmaid is no relative of his.

Eventually Sleve finishes his set, and they discuss the plan to go to the Mining Registration Office in the morning. A bit of boisterous banner ensues as Ordo tries to get Ylervan to take his musket and coin purse to the ship, so we had a winner for 3XP in this session! Ordo heads off with Gwen who is off any time for our hirsute hero, and the Dwarf and Nomad head back to the ship. 

We also uncovered several rumors:

• the big Alderil ship may have an Alderil Empiure captain. but the woman giving the commands has a harsh Roche Empire accent. And two finely made sabers, and is not one to mess with apparently
• conflicting rumors about the local council representative, who may or may not be in cahoots with the Alderil Empire
• there are spies everywhere!

Next morning our crew awakens, and after Ordo fixes a nice breakfast for his lady friend, they regroup and head to the mining office. The burgermeister there, who works off the people's taxes, is more than willing to share public information on the mines in the mountains. They find a map that corresponds to the red-x on the scrap of a map they got from Pirate Pete. 

Heading back to the ship, I rolled a random pickpocket, and rolled again and Sleve rolled his Grit vs the pickpocket's skullduggery and noticed a hand trying nip his coins. He grabs her, and she screams bloody murder and this man is attacking her in broad daylight! Sleve, laid back Nomad dude that he is, recognizes her garb of that of a Grasswalker, a group of nomads he has hung out with in Jieghan and the huge nomad pack animals.

(And I am going to have to use this in my Fantasy Trip game - too good to not use!) Turns out that the Nomads have a very broad definition of family, and our young Sineag MacGill'Oig is distantly related, and she is on her walkabout. After explaining things to the constable (with the fine hat), our group returns to the ship, now with a young ward in tow, being met by a runner from the harbormaster. The Alterin Empire ship had left a bit before, heading north into the mountains.

And I think that's where we left it. I think I've got it all covered but my players will hopefully let me know if I left anything out.

And we learned a bit about the fish-squeezing clans of the northern islands: they only give the bad squeezings to the rich and hoity-toity, keeping the good stuff for themselves. And they are friendly and outgoing. 

We learned that the Nomads go on walkabouts when young to learn about the world in their own way. And apparently they are all related somehow.

I think the game went a bit better - perhaps we're getting our sea legs. Or is that sky legs? And my notebook did help as things are a bit better organized. And I found if I print landscape, I can have foldout pages! Other pages are 1 page character sheets for the NPCs that are important. 

And finally - several of the images came via searching while playing. The one real advantage of this type of gaming is the available resources. Which is also the downside as it is too easy to get distracted. The big nomad creature is actually out of a Kickstarter I backed by De Architectura. And the names of drinks and things via quick searches for random name generators. I actually have a few of those lists printed out for when I play The Fantasy Trip as usually I am not at the computer.

Lamia's Labyrinth

I got started on this then realized I have a Corsairs game tomorrow night I needed to prepare for! So the previous post goes over that, along with some re-reading of the rules, and printing out some stuff & actually putting it into my notebook, hole-punched, so I have it handy. And better organized than the pile of papers.

Anyway, I went through the Dyson maps I do have and found an interesting one that is about the size I want to deal with. And I like my name for it. 

I took the map, dropped it into GIMP and added a layer. Using the mosaic distortion allows you to add hexes. Played with the size a bit until I got the size that seemed about right for the corridors. The save that off as an image, and load into Google draw as it is a lot easier to deal with text in that. And added a sandy looking background. Added numbers per room, then realized the Corsair game was coming up. So that is as far as I got. The plan is:

1. add a few traps to the map from one of the trap manuals I have
2. add at least a couple of things from the various PDFs I've bought via Kickstarter. There are a few that are actually in separate PDFs (a gauntlet here, a helm there, that end up with a composite affect versus the individual bonuses they may give).
3. maybe drop in one of the Decks of Silly Things.
4. throw in a few characters which is the entire reason they *may* go into the Lamia's Labyrinth.
5. decide if this is a bad lamia or a good lamia. She may still want to eat them.

There are 18 locations marked on the map, and perhaps a couple I've not marked I'll discover when reading through some of the PDFs.

I also need to figure out why this is here, and buried in the sand. Will there be clues to the lost city of Tuvano? I'll need to read through that & take any notes that may be useful for running that adventure. 

Plus I've been dropping other Kickstarter locations in my world: the Yol'Najj Forest is just over the mountains south of Tuvano, the Riany City has been hinted at but not located yet, Willow has yet to be situated. I've stuck Wrex's Drift off the bay there, as well as So'lan is in the same bay. Off-map is the island of the Amazons. Lots of stuff I can add as needed. When we finally get back to playing!