Traveller 5.10 - Book One, Part 1

Book 1: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

After reading a few blogs where people go over their RPGs chapter by chapter, I decided to do the same thing. As I've not actually read the Traveller 5.10 books cover to cover, just picked and chose to read various sections. Which may be the best approach for me: I use various rule sets in those rare occasions I run a Traveller game, and there are some really nice mechanics in 5.10. And they finally figured out that the 1st chapter in an RPG book should not be dozens of pages of dice stats...

Plus, this is supposed to be a Traveller blog, though it has definitely branched out in the last 19 years I've been posting. 

Book 1 has 280 pages, a far cry from the original Book1 of, what, 60-odd pages? But as per the original Classic Traveller, Book 1 is titled Book 1: Characters and Combat.

the slip cased 5.10 version

Traveller is a role playing game

Pretty sure that should be self-evident, yet they go into a sample session after the brief concept of what an RPG is. At this point in the world of role-playing games, most of this chapter should be self-evident. But it is short at 2 pages. However, there is something that is of particular interest to Traveller players, and the primary reason it is one of my favorite RPGs. The last paragraph says:

Much (but not all) of Traveller is solitaire: the creation and description of worlds and starships and devices and objects; the definition of histories and backgrounds and cultures. For example, there is a process for designing starships; the player must decide for themselves the details of the ship appropriate for its mission. Another process describes both random and deliberate creation of planets; the referee details worlds that will be encountered. Rules cover mapping of worlds or interstellar sectors; design of weapons or communicators; wild animals or alien races.

I've played a lot more Traveller solo than in any game, playing or running it. I also noted that the PDF copy has some color illustrations that are black and white in the book. The original Kickstarter for Traveller 5 had stretch goals of color prints in the book, and the starships are all in glorious color. However, I am oddly nostalgic about a simple black and white book, with line drawings. For some reason, a line drawing allows me to apply more of my imagination to what is happening. Or it was simply my first contact with Traveller and most RPGs of the day.

color in the PDF, and black & white in the book.

A Brief History of the Universe

The next section covers the Traveller universe, in an homage to Hawkin's a Brief History of Time. Doing this I think says Hey, this is a hard science fiction setting. We use science! It covers the Traveller history from 300,000 BCE and Grandfather's Era to the Third Imperium. There is some mention of other possible civilizations as well. This is a very brief 4-page uber-summary. As such it only gives a very, very broad playground that you can use or not. One thing to note that like the original Traveller, Traveller 5.0 does not have a built-in setting. The Galaxiad gets some mention later, and there is now a supplement by Rob Eaglestone available on Drive-Thru that gives more details on that setting. As I really like the 1105 Golden Era, I have managed to not get it. Eventually I will as he does great work. But I'd prefer a POD option, so holding off to see if that will happen. 

The Foundations of the Traveller Universe

Traveller describes a vast future universe in which mankind has already reached the stars and conquered thousands of worlds, but still faces the never-ending struggle to conquer more worlds and wrest more secrets from the universe. Traveller uses a foundation of hard science, supplemented by the soft sciences to add character and flavor, and driven by characters, to explore the worlds and cultures of the future universe, all in search of  adventure. 

This 4 page chapter (I am sensing a pattern here!) covers the basic functions of the Traveller universe: jump drive, interstellar communications being limited by said jump drive, tech levels. gravity manipulation which really changes a LOT of things once you have that. There is some brief coverage of AI, artificial people, but remains a human-centric universe for game purposes. I will admit I cannot role play an entirely alien character - any motivations and things I have are almost necessarily based on stuff I've experienced or can imagine. And to be able to imagine something truly alien is really hard. 

It also mentions everything is driven by economics. However, just as the original Traveller could not foresee the advances computers went through, I think the authors are missing the concept of a post-scarcity society. Star Trek sort of has this: people are no longer bound by economic limitations and can do what they want to for the most part. And just as with a totally alien point of view, this is also really hard to figure out. But that would also put this game into an almost trans-humanist realm. To keep things grounded for those of us in the early 21st century, we are still following the "follow the money" process for gaming. 

Traveller Uses Dice

Just a lot more dice than Classic: 10 d6 should be enough for the most extreme rolls; double hasty beyond impossible. Though beyond impossible seems, well, impossible. But it is a role-playing game! The basis of various dice mechanics are covered: modifiers, target numbers, flux. There is a short discussion on mods vs DMs but honestly, you are just changing the numbers on one side or the other of the equation. And the biggest difference is that most rolls in Traveller 5 are roll under. Which makes sense when using dice pools. but it is still a mechanic I just cannot seem to reconcile with Traveller. Of course, I also miss programming in COBOL a times! 

With the change to using dice pools, we suddenly have a greatly increased granularity on percentages and chances. A 2d6 system has a pretty short bell-curve for the distribution of rolls. The dice pool system coupled with the other mechanics give us a much wider range of values and the percentage of being able to succeed or fail. But at least they moved the dice percentage tables from the 1st chapter you read to an appendix! The two pages here give you enough to understand where they plan on going later with the dice. 

End of my 1st post covering T5.10

It took longer than I would have expected to cover 19 pages - not even 10% of the 1st book of 3! But as I've only skimmed most of these massive tomes, I feel I really should give them a deeper view. There are people on COTI actually running T5 games, and my group has shown some interesting in playing another Traveller game. Especially as we've added a player I've not played with in a few years, and first met almost 40 years ago! COVID really screwed up our gaming group in many ways. But this player is an old-school Traveller player, so that may help the game out a bit. Though I put the onus on me to present a good game for the players.

I've only about 900 more pages to go. Hopefully I'll be able to cover all of Traveller 5.10 but it will take me a long, long time I fear! But I'll persevere on and we'll see how far I get!

Part 2 Part 3

Return to the dungeon under the well

Having rested a couple of days at Gudaliva's Inn and spending all their recently acquired gold to purchase an enchanted dagger and halberd, our group descends once again down the rickety ladder. Hopefully prepared for the undead they are going to see and kill before leaving our hostess. Who is getting a bit antsy as she saw a wanted poster in town that looks suspiciously like Argon. And mention of a vampire, which makes her put out garlic in her bedroom when she goes to sleep. 

They decide to go down the parallel corridor, passing the rotting remains of the basilisk they killed. Billy noticed it had been chewed on but could not tell by what. Moving on, Tecton manages to trigger another spiked pit trap while Argon leapt backwards fast enough to avoid falling into it. Again, the thick gargoyle skin protects the gargoyle and he received a mere scratch. 

Back in the room of pillars, they search and find nothing else new. The columns are sealed back up without a seam to be seen, and there are piles of splintered bones covering the floor. Checking the door for traps, they are attacked by two green slimes, who both missed. Billy swings his torch but a critical fumble and he drops the torch, and it goes out (he rolled an 18). Tecton in a few blows manages to kill the other slime with his torch while Billy backs away, and manages to retrieve his torch. A couple rounds later, both slimes are smelly charred lumps on the floor. 

All the ruckus raised another creature to attack them. Hearing a rustling, they find that they are getting attacked by a parchment golem made of books! While not looking like the origami monster from the TFT Bestiary, I did use those stats.

Knowing that the door is trapped, Thade and Argon (Tecton? the same guy playing two gargoyles make it hard for me to keep track of them) go back around a corner while Billy and Tecton toss a rock at the door, triggering the whistle and light. Being prepared this time around, no one takes any damage.

The magical specter is visible through the open door, but neither side seems to want to move. Eventually the magical creature darts out to attack Billy, and the others move in. 

No, YOU move first!

Billy cannot do much of anything against this undead mage, and tries to dodge. Unfortunately the undead grabbed Billy and he felt his shoulder grow cold at the touch, taking all of 2 points of damage (I rolled great for the attack, then snake eyes on the damage!). Thade had moved behind the undead wizard and managed a significant blow with his enchanted dagger. Did you know weapon mastery gives an extra 1d6+1 damage (maybe +2...) with an aimed blow at -4DX. And attacking from the read negates that -4. Thade is somewhat overpowered in some ways, but only carries a dagger. The undead wizard pivots to attack Thade as Billy is not a threat. Argon, armed with his halberd, does a pole weapon attack, charging the undead wizard. The next round Thade kills off the undead, and his body dissolves in a coiling black smoke, leaving just his clothes lying crumpled on the floor. They rest 15 minutes, getting the torches replaced and Billy gets one of the points of damage back as it counted as fatigue damage. 

The next room is the Princess' reading room. A nook with a fireplace and bookshelves, a couple of chairs on a fancy rug. The books appear to be mostly children's books but disturbing them brought out another parchment golem! Again, not a single paper cut as the torches did quick work and ignited the paper golem in quick order. Searching the room triggered both doors to slam shut. 

Lighting the fireplace turned out to be an error in judgement: a vapor came from the logs. Somehow Billy was the only one to not avoid breathing in the toxic fumes. The gargoyles battered down the other door, and they escaped into a room full of dresses. That turned out to be an illusion: touching them they disappear. But that also revealed two secret doors. Choosing one, the head down a corridor to fund a circular room with 8 glowing purple columns encircling a kneeling man. 

And this is where we left for the day. A few things to note: the younger player is a lot more cautious now realizing his characters could die a lot easier than the 5e game he is used to. And in reading the rules, I've found two things I've gotten wrong over the years:

• You can use weapons you don't have a skill in, but use 4 dice against your dexterity to hit. A high dexterity character can probably use about any weapon, though you do still have that 16+ automatic miss. and with 4 dice have a better chance of dropping and breaking your weapon. Which actually makes sense from a mechanical perspective.
• You can use weapons that have a higher strength than you have, but at -1 for each strength you are using. If you are a ST 12 user using a ST 15 weapon, you are at a -3 to hit. For a high DX character, you may be able to do more damage this way

Another rule I always have a hard time finding is the injury rule: 5 points or more of damage gives you a -2 on your next to hit roll. For some reason that is not in the attack and damage rules section but a few pages later. I think it should be in both places. I always seem to be flipping pages to find it.

I think they had a good time, though we've only been in 2 dungeons and not much in the way of actual role play. I figure they will finish this next session depending on how cautious they are, then we may hit the road and have more social encounters above ground. I also need to remember that they went to Edge City to find the vampire who turned Thade, so I need to drop some hints in there. Perhaps the inn keeper knows something of this, as she is keeping a lot of garlic in her bedroom!

Fantasy Trip Game Recaps - Two for One Special!

I've started another post for Edge City, more world building similar to what I've done for Windemere Crossing. And that game is on the "down-time" mode: we're always text a lot, but sometimes we do in-game things. I've been accumulating those posts and will also share those here at some point as it is part of a game recap for the part of the game that is not really played but more talked about. I also plan on letting the characters level up one more level as the time period covers most of the winter. 

Anyway - I've got two game recaps to go over here. As this weekend I ran 2 games for 2 groups. We'll start with the Saturday group. To remind you, we meet every 2 weeks but at a different house, so this Fantasy Trip game only gets run once a month. We also gained a new player who has never played the Fantasy Trip but is a veteran RPG player. 

Pretty sure I've not done the introductions yet for the characters. 

• Dauwnaromanadvoratrelunar ("Dawn") an Elf, a bard with sex appeal (which is a talent) so she gets looked at and gets a positive DM on encounters. Along with her charisma skill, she can be quite irresistible.
• Violet Applewing, farmer Halfling. Who has also been trained by the thieves' guild. Small and dangerous with a sling. I do need to make sure we can utilize her skill set more. 
• Deimos, a half Orc/hale Elf magic user. With Noodles, the "staff to snake" snake she can summon. Always covered up head to toe, his is pretty big but Orcs, especially with the half-Elf, get an even more negative reaction. He has the same bear he keeps summoning and he keeps some dried fish handy to see about making friends with the bear. I may allow that if the player adds animal friendship, or I may start reading up on familiars in TFT. 
• Hexis, the Lizardman from the islands. A formidable fighter and often hires on as a bodyguard. His lived in the city off and on for a few years and has area knowledge. 
• Akz, the Goblin rat-catcher. Our newest recruit. He mostly stands back and makes snarky comments from what I can tell. 

From the first session, the group has returned from the sewers with Keg, the enchanted beer barrel. Reunited with Joseph, and some beet in his barrel, Keg comes back to life. "Third time this week those rats have managed to drag the poor thing to the sewers!" laments Joesph as he hands the adventurers their coin for rescuing his friend and server. Dawn bends down to ask if Keg would like to do anything else in life, but the little golem is quite happy serving beer. Just not happy that these rats of unusual size keep tipping him over and taking him to the sewers. 

The guards make a bit of a stink of Hexis's smell as he did wade through the sewers. He quickly doffs his kilt and belt and dives into the river, at least getting himself clean. A coupel children point at the Lizardman, saying "look Mommy - a naked lizard!". Hexis does not worry about what warmbloods think.

Heading into town to the market to pick up some supplies and soap, Violet does not realize she is getting pickpocketed, whereas Dawn and Deimos both do. Deimos tries to grab the hand but the little girl managed to escape, though not with his change purse. Dawn looks down, and starts talking in thieves cant to the surprise of Michael, the street urchin. Streetwise skill I suppose. Though in hindsight, Violet should have had 1 less die to roll to determine if she was getting pick pocketed as she has that skill. And I'd rule she is more likely to notice when it happens. Anyway, Dawn finds that George is Micheal's boss, and Micheal promises he'll let the local thieves know not to bother the group, and he'll get Violet's change purse back to her. 

At Hexis' modest above, they eat and rest up. Early in the morning there is a knock at the door, but no one there when they open it. However, Violet's pouch is there, intact with her money. Though she does not keep the bulk of her money in such an easy to find place, so it was only a few silvers. 

Deciding to return to the sewers to see about that sword, the find young Michael who finds them an opening closer to the crypt entrance. Also, they would not have to get back through the warehouse as that was an office in the back and the owners may not want a bunch of people thinking that was simply a front door to the sewers! Back in the sewers, they see a perplexed Goblin standing in front of the illusion of the wall covering the door. Diemos ends up walking through the illusion, shattering it, and they get back to the crypt with the soldier. Reading up on the scrolls, they find that Sir Briarstake was a paladin of a former age of the city, a hero who killed the undead. Seeing the sword, Hexis gets everyone else back out of the room and carefully lifts it up. The statues turn their heads to watch him, and he asks permission to use the sword. There is a slight nod, and the rest of the group comes through and down into the dungeon they go. Had they tried to take the sword out without fulfilling the quest, the same thing would have happened as per the other group: a fight with the caryatid (from the Old School Monster book): 

A one-hex creature (three hexes for giants). It is completely made of stone, and stops 4 hits per attack. A “caryatid” is a column carved in the form of a nymph. (If a column represents a male, it is called an “atlas.”) The caryatid column described here is an enchanted guardian of finely carved stone. The only way to tell a magical caryatid column from an ordinary carved stone is Analyze Magic. An Architect would get a hint by noticing that the “column” is not actually load-bearing. Caryatid columns will activate when certain conditions are  met – most usually, when holy precincts are invaded or when some item or person is threatened.

Heading down, the 1st thing the see is a wight. Holding a bag of coins in one hand and a silver sword in the other, he is outside a stout wooden door. The sword comes in handy as they fight this undead and come to realize that only that sword is having any effect on the creature. They find a scrap of parchment on Crim's Curse when they kill it. Taking the coins, they head into the crypt of Crim, a wizard who created this crypt and cursed all his treasure so none would take it out.

Moving forward, the pass through a room with 8 corpses propped up on opposite walls. Ignoring the lootable bodies, they head deeper into the crypt. A small put trap fails to hurt anyone as they explore more of the crypt. Sadly no one ever did search for secret doors as there were actually 2 they missed. Though with the curse, in the end it really did not matter. They find two odd rooms, one with a few inches of mud due to a leak from the rivers above, and the other with half an inch of olive oil. Down a long corridor they find Crim's sarcophagus. Surprising the sleeping mummy, Hexis sees it momentarily before it disappears. He does she the scimitar weaving to him as he tries to close the door on the invisible mummy. Sadly, the mummy is stronger and the door is getting pushed open, though the mummy is no longer invisible. [Note: the adventure was written for OSE and its magic is significantly different, so I added a small powerstone but Crim did now want to expand it all, so became visible again]. Holding back the mummy, with his shield extended Hexis keeps the rest of the group safe as he can. Dawn shot it with an arrow which had no effect on the undead creature. Deimos brought Noodles out, and having occult damage she could damage the mummy. However, that bastard sword wielded by the Island Lizardman managed to kill the mummy much faster than I anticipated. So there was no running around the dungeon, trying to track it by footsteps from the mud or oil. Deimos was happy to get an 8-point powerstone. 

Getting back out, they decide to go ahead & check the body. finding some gold, Violet managed to get sprayed by some acid in one of the booby-trapped corpses. Finally, they leave the dungeon. Deimos immediately is 2" shorter. Nothing appears to happen to Violet, the other character carrying out any of the treasures. . Figuring out the curse from the parchment, they toss the treasures back into the crypt. Deimos is back to his regular height, and Violet will no longer turn into an Orc in 30 days. 

Traipsing back up, the caryatids have a faint smile on their stone lips: the undead was killed, the +2-bastard sword is theirs to keep. Sir Briarstake named the sword Scourge, and it is engraved along the blade in an old script of Oggish, a language that died out centuries ago.

And that is where the Saturday ended.

Sunday Recap

The Sunday game was a bit shorter, and having only 2 people instead of 5, a bit less cross-talk. The characters in this games are:

• Tecton, a gargoyle fighter for the most part that cannot speak Common.
• Argon, a magic wielding gargoyle who can speak Common
• Billy Bass, a roguish healer with a sword
• Thanos, the Elf-turned-Vampire. And a weapons master with the dagger (which, if you take a -4DX and hit you do an extra 1d6+2 damage!. Which he has).

At the inn outside of town, they rest up a couple of days before heading down into the dungeon. The entrance is a rickety ladder (one I made from craft sticks years ago. and finally used!). Moving through the first chamber, Billy sees basilisk tracks through the mud and debris. Behind a pile of branches, they see the creature. Who manages to freeze Tecton who failed his 4D vs INT roll. Thanos and Billy ( I think and this was only a few hours ago!) do kill the beast, which frees Tecton from his paralysis. 

I am far behind in painting!

Skeletons from the early 80s. Badly painted with enamel paint

Fight!

Heading down the corridor, Argon managed to step into a pit trap but took no damage due to his stony skin. The next room had six columns. Finding nothing other than a fancy brass door, they attempt the batter it down. Touching the door, they hear the sounds of the columns opening up: 6 guardian skeletons emerge for a fight! Billy realizes that arrows go right through skeletons with his one and only shot. The gargoyles do a fair amount of damage, but it turns out that Thanos, using weapon mastery, manages to pulverize three of the skeletons and help with the last as the gargoyles take out some as well. He had to fly to the skeleton attacking Billy. While Billy knows of Thane's condition, the gargoyles do not yet.  Noticing that the one not destroyed (8+ damage in a single strike to a skeleton destroys it no matter how many HP/STR it has left) seem to be putting themselves back together. The stony and heavy feet of gargoyles soon remedies that situation!

Taking a brief break, they then attempt to open the door again. A flash of light blinds most of the group for the next 10 minutes, and a piercing whistle deafens most of them as well. They start moving back up the crypt. Argon's acute hearing, not damaged in the whistle, hears the door creak open but no other sound. Undead magic users make no noise apparently! Sight and hearing slowly returning, they attempt to fight this thing. Alas none have enchanted weapons and all the blows do no damage. Argon starts using magic fist, but sadly rolls really low and barely hurts it. Thane is using his weapon skill to dodge (meaning the creature uses 4D against its DX to hit. It never landed a blow with all the bobbing and weaving the Elf was doing). The others escape back up the well, and due to some lucky rolls, Thanos manages to escape as well as he can fly and has 2x the MA. The gargoyles were amazed that this Elf could run so fast you can't even see his feet moving!

Locking up the well once more, they make plans with the innkeeper. Using most of their gold they are getting some enchanted weapons to try again in a couple of days. The innkeeper wants them gone soon though as there these wanted posters for the murder getting put up.

Some final thoughts

Both adventures came from Delver and mixed in with one of my location and scenes book. Both were written with OSE in mind so some liberal translation was needed. I could have given Crim an invisibility pendant or something - keeping the magic spell going was too costly for him even though I had a 8-point powerstone added to his treasures. I think I am getting the hang of running pre-written adventures, though I do spend a fair amount of time reading them and trying to translate to the Fantasy Trip. I also have a few Fantasy Trip adventures so need to re-read those to see if we can use those. I think both groups had a good time but it makes these once-a-month weekends at my house busy. 

And I need to figure out how to organize the stuff I do have so I can find it easier. Not just the books (and I need to get back to my library!) but the props and everything. Running games outside the home helps me with this as I have to get everything ready ahead of time and pack it up. Thinking I can do something like that. So far all I have are two small boxes where I keep the 2 adventure party miniatures in between games so I can at elast find them! So that is progress!

Game Aids

Normally I mostly do game aids for the games I run, but I'm playing in a Fate game (I do like the mechanics as they are pretty straightforward. I don't like character generation as it is very open-ended and mostly suggestions). 

Playing in the 1930's New York pulp vigilante world, and my character is a cross between Catwoman and Batman: a gymnast who was orphaned while competing in Berlin Olympics.

Amazing what you can with Google Draw!

A Monster And A Squirrel Named Charlie

Under the Drink, the adventurers hear guards from the kitchens above. But the cavern past the snakes looks like a dead end! However, a closer inspection they notice that the rock wall does not look as convincing as it could. Despite the herculean efforts of the two gargoyles, they could just barely get it to budge. The rogue Billy took a look, and with a bit of experimenting they managed to open the secret wall. An obvious lever on the other side rapidly closed the door behind them. Billy, also being a naturalist, easily noticed the two green slimes up ahead, ready to pounce. Unfortunately for the slimes, they cannot eat the thick skin of a gargoyle, who rapidly shredded them.

And a 4 way intersection, they decide to go right, and found what appeared to be a small cell, with a pile of rags. In the space around it was a saber, hammer, and a well-used set of chainmail. While Billy decided to see if the chainmail would fit, Thade, our Elf vampire, decided to see if anyone was in the cell.

"Oy, yah, there be me in this cell. Me being Olly. And whatcha doing in me armor?" I grabbed a semi-random card from the set of characters we had from the Kickstarter. I had the prisoner in case my friend's son decided to come along and play and we would stick his character there. He did not, so now they have a meat shield, err, NPC companion. 

The gargoyles, Tecton and Argon, let the disheveled man from the cell, giving him back his rapier and hammer with the assurance that he would help them out. Of course, they do not trust him as he did mention he had crossed Derig Goldensunder, the dwarf proprietor of the Drink that they had just killed. 

Looking back at Billy in his chainmail, Olly takes the lead, and the cross to the other side of the intersection. Argon and Tecton batter down the door, and there they find what looks to be a small office. A ledger is found with varying amounts of money listed, and a list of names. All crossed off except for Ollie. A giant vault door stands before them, and, digging out a key that Billy looted from Derig, they find it opens the vault. Inside is a pile of gold in the corner. Warily they enter, checking for giant spiders, slimes and whatever may hang from the ceiling. Nothing is there.

Olly pokes at the treasure with his saber, which rapidly reveals itself to be a large mouth with large teeth!

so I have this mimic bed....

A fight ensues, the creature never quite hitting any of the adventurers, and the quickly slay this beast. Seeing bones, they surmised Derig used it to dispose of his enemies. Unknown to our crew, Derig had named it Charlie, and kept it well fed. Charlie was as fond of the dwarf as a mimic can be. Raised him from a mimic pup, he did. 

Finding a few pieces of real gold and silver, they head back. Billy relented and gave Olly back his armor. Which is good as Oly managed to fall into a pit trap in the corridor, but only suffered minor damage to his pride. Getting pulled out, the others  managed to get across without incident. A cool draft was coming from the corridor in front of them.

Opening into a larger room with two columns holding up the ceiling, they decide to investigate what looked to be a library. They find an odd collection of what looked to be romance novels of some sort, but also a scroll of weapon scalding (a magic scroll). There is an upstairs room they visit, complete with a bear skin rug, and a romance novel on the bedside stand. This appears to be where Derig would sometimes live. Being a Dwarf he did prefer being in a proper stone hold rather than some flimsy building above ground. Argom, with his excellent hearing, heard what sounded like the guards coming into the underground complex. Knowing that going forward was the only way, they continued into what turned out to be a frozen room.

Everyone but Thade slipped on the slick ice. That is when they saw the two ice snakes, clear as ice, slither across the ice. The battle was fierce as they had to often fight from the ground, unable to stand up. I really should have read the slippery floor rules, but I ended up making it a 4D against DEX to get up, and 4D against DEX each turn to stay up. And if fighting the snakes from a prone position, 4D instead of 3. But eventually (and much later than I expected!) the snakes were killed.

And that is where we left it: the guards are getting closer though one did fall in the pit trap. Is there an escape ahead or will it be a dead end? Why is there a frozen room under the city? What do ice snakes even eat as there cannot be enough adventurers coming down to feed them? And why was Charlie named Charlie?

I think they had fun, and I got to use a lot of my terrain and things. Of course, with a weekly cadence I need to figure out things faster. And I do have answers for all the above actually:

1. Yes, there is an exit ahead of them. Somewhere. 
2. The frozen room was there because I wanted something different and I had this ice room. In the game world, an ancient ice spell was used in this area in an arcane attack. The spell became permanent. Derig was using it to keep some of his food stores cold. Though it could also be an opening to a frozen plane of existence. There are gates in this world...
3. Ice snakes eat from the stores of food, Derig figured it was nice to have guard snakes.
4. Charlie was the name of my stuffed squirrel from when I was little. I still have it 50+ years later...

Charlie

Murder at the Drink

A vampire Elf, hunting for the one who turned him, and his two companions, a gargoyle wizard and a thuggish gargoyle who cannot speak the common tongue, stayed at Gudeliva's Tavern outside of Edge City. While enjoying some stone soup and pretending to drink some wine, a few boisterous Dwarves showed up. Getting some of her fine ale in their bellies, they start a bit of a ruckus which ends up in a bit of a tussle. After our gargoyles helped clean up the Dwarves, Gudeliva tells her tale: her father died last year and Derig Goldensunder has been wanting to expand his taverns to include hers. She is now thinking her father's sudden death under a horse cart may not have been quite the accident she thought as additional hardships and minor calamites have happened and Derig has been making more offers with hints that it was dangerous for a woman to own a tavern outside the safety of the city walls. She says that Derig keeps his treasure in a cellar at the Drink, Derig Goldensunder's Tavern in Edge City (at the corner of Quarry and the Hole and Corner streets). There is a trap door in the kitchen leading down. She would be obliged if they could find something to implicate Derig in her father's death, but perhaps just taking some of his gold may strike him better.

The next night finds our trio at the tavern at closing time. There are a couple city guards after their shift imbibing as the evening wears on. Then they leave and the tavern master, Derig, tries to get the remaining customers to leave so he can close up. A fight quickly ensues, and death of course happens (and here I was trying to avoid the murder hobo trope!). Our vampire is almost killed but drinks from Derig himself. Interestingly in The Fantasy Trip vampires heal a point every other turn. Makes them a bad enemy and perhaps an overpowered player character. The cook meanwhile, seeing the damage unfolding, escapes out the kitchen door. 

Once in the kitchen, they find the trap door and head down. A small room with a couple chests is at the bottom of the stone stairs. One chest is open and they scoop up some gold. They also hear above that the town guard has arrived at the Drink. Ignoring the second closed chest, they move into the connecting corridor. Of course, there are giant snakes down here (and no, despite appearances, Noodles is not dead, though perhaps his twin is!), and not sure what else (I really need to get better at notes!). And that is where we left things.

the start of a random dungeon 

The two NPCs are from Philip Reed's Fantasy City Sites & Scenes (link in previous post). Though I did make up the secret cellar, and after that, I actually used the big box top to do a random dungeon via dropping a die in there. Of course, now I need to make up more of the dungeon as we play again Sunday morning!

As noted before, Edge city is built on older cities, so we have complete archologies here! and yes, they probably all interlink somehow. In fact, the scene from Gudeliva's Tavern actually has a dungeon behind her tavern in the well! Missed that when reading things.

As part of my living city, there will be wanted posters in the next few days for the gargoyles and the robed man as the cook did see them. And I have started a post about Edge City so will have something on that at some point. Just a severe lack of time coinciding with the desire to write that up. As much as I do like writing!

Maybe the other players will see this wanted poster and we have a party hunting down another player party! Of course, to a non-gargoyle all gargoyles probably look pretty much the same. Or not - we've not really established how the gargoyles look. And Edge City has its share of well-covered people in town. In fact, the other group I am running has this half-Orc/half-Elf who is also tall and well wrapped up. The next wanted poster may look similar to her, and she gets pulled in. But that is a few days away in game time.

And in using the Ank-Morpork book, it is quite overwhelming in its detail. I do have as things near the Drink:

• The Baths in Brown Stairs
• Twilight Caverns which is a rest home for Trolls and Dwarves (this is Discworld)
• One Happy Man on Fat Street
• The Crab And Stars
• The Crown and Hippo
• The Hole and Corner
• The Klatchian's Head
• The Mason's Arms

Of course, it has been a few years since I've read any of these books so it is all very vague. 

To the sewers once more!

I ran my second group through the same sewers. And threw slightly different monsters at them, perhaps a bit too many as they did mention it was like a zoo down there!

Same start as before: they are on the city docks (as I have this big 2x3' dock map and so get to use it!) when they hear a cry "Hey - that rat stole my Keg!" and see the guards chasing this giant rat carrying something in its mouth into the dock warehouse. They get in there and see the guards huddled around the grate in the back office and overhear one say to another: "I ain't going down there! Just a couple days ago, three went down and only two came back!". The other responded with "They don't pay us enough for going down there!"

One of the new adventurers, an Elf, tries to sweet talk a guard into paying them to go down there to rescue this keg. The keg's owner bustles in and offers a gold apiece to "recover my Keg." The characters of course do not hear the uppercase K, not knowing it is an enchanted keg named, well, Keg.

Keg, the keg

Declining the guards offer of a drink and a meal after they get back, the elf Dawn manages to get a few silvers from the guard for the return of this keg. The Elf, the heavily covered half-Elf half-Orc wizard. the reptile man from the Abasscar Islands, and the halfling head down the grate's stone stairs to the sewers of Edge City.

The player created this map of Hexis' home islands

Of course, there are the ever-present slimes. One missed and fell into the sewer: water and slimes do not mix so it could hardly hold itself together as it floated out to the river. The other also missed but landed next to (and no notes, so not sure who it landed next to!). Needless to say, Diemos, the magic user, tried to shove it into the water with his spear. Unfortunately, it is like pushing a 50-pound mound of jello with a stick - it was not too productive. Deciding that as it was very slow, they could just leave it, they did. Hexis, our reptile man, being a strong swimmer and the sewer water not being too nasty hear, walked and swam next to the group until he got attacked by a river leech! It seemed to be a quick battle and they killed it without much ado. And mentioned there were certainly a lot of creatures living in these sewers!

mostly painted river leeches. at least for this game!

Coming up on the corner, the stench was overpowering. And as none could fly in this group, a good roll and Hexis found an old bench that now served as a bridge for Dawn the archer Elf. Deimos the half Orc/half-Elf magic user and Violet, the "farmer" with some amazing skills (aka rogue) get across without any issue. They all missed the rat's wet footprints (no one made the roll) and flipping a coin, went to the larger cavern. They too saw the chest, and Hexis swam out to it when the giant toad came out and attacked the others! Swimming back, he managed in the next turn to jump on its back and stab it with his steely blade, but still could not kill the beast. Between that and the adventurers in front, the frog was killed without any damage to anyone, and they sawed off its legs as frog legs make for good eating! And the rest of the carcass was eventually eaten by the river leeches. Getting back to the cruft of debris in the corner, they recover a small chest with a bit of treasure and a map to a temple a few days west of the city. 

Heading back, not yet recovering the rat or missing keg, the head into the other chambers. Seeing a blunderbuss on the floor was an odd find, and looking up, they did see the giant spider, and next to it, a goblin-sized roll of web. The spider attacked, but our new crew managed to kill that beast without anyone getting bit or dying from the poison. In fact, they took the poison gland as it will allow them to dip a weapon in it and if they hit, have the same effect: roll 3 dice against STR, and failing that, take another 2d of damage!

Continuing on, they come to the chamber with the open casket. They find a scroll of the Dancing Shield which may prove useful, some silly books, and Hexis, who has lived in the city for a few years and has Area Knowledge, recalled seeing the golden gryphon as a symbol for a ruler hundreds of years ago. They also manage to shove the heavy stone casket and find a trap door below that. Deimos detects magic on the sword. Violet, using her "farmer senses" per Hexis, finds the hole the rat went down, and Keg. Realizing that Keg was an enchanted keg of some sort. The whole is too small for Deimos to fit down, and Dawn may have an issue as well. Then a discussion came out that perhaps Keg did not want to be a servant or was even a slave. While slavery is technically illegal in Edge City, there are some borderline cases where indentured is pretty darn close to being a slave. On the way out, the magic user casts an illusion spell over the entrance to those other chambers to keep others out. As they want to go back for that sword

They return to the surface and that is where we left that game. I think everyone had a pretty good time - it was later than we thought so we wrapped things up there. We'll start when they pop their heads back up through the grate in the warehouse in a month.

I also ran another game this morning for my other group - we're currently meeting in a weekly cadence. I'll have that summary in the next post or two. But they are in a random dungeon I started as I had no plans really. I based the 1st part from Philip Reeds Fantasy Cities Sites and Scenes and then the 2nd part from another of that series. adding a secret hatch in the kitchen of the pub. But that's a tale for another post!

This game is going to the sewers

I've started running not one but two Fantasy Trip game. One that takes once a month with the mostly-Monday group, and the other is Nate and a nephew. As both groups wanted to move to a more urban setting, it is back to Edge City, my Ank-Morpok analog (well, I have the maps and may as well use them!). 

Of course, the first run through with the new group saw a 50% party kill. Which served, I hope, to point out just how deadly OSE types of games are. On the bright side, one of the two characters was technically my own, though one of the players was going to play him when we got together. He could not make that first session, and as the game needed 4 characters, I played Bruk the barbarian. Who was killed by a skeleton.

The game this weekend actually finished the set piece but did take a fair amount of time to get started. Both players brought character and none of them were legal 32-point characters. I did end up allowing for 33 points but there was some major character renovation going on. For one player, this was his first time playing The Fantasy Trip, and was use to D&D 5e. I think old-school rules and not being able to do everything and be basically a superhero at level 1 was throwing him off (and yes, I may be throwing shade at 5e but I really don't like that version). 

The players had just docked at a river dock, when they hear a scream and see a very large rat carrying something off into a warehouse. Following the guards, the just catch the end of the rat tail disappearing into an office in the back corner, being chased by the 4 dock guards. We have a human rogue type of character, a goblin artificer carrying a blunderbuss, and a gargoyle who cannot speak common. The goblin has been his translator. Still not sure why some players want to carry a gun in a fantasy game; in TFT you fire once and yes, it can do a fair amount of damage but takes 12 rounds to reload, gunpowder is expensive and hard to come by, and it can literally blow up in your face. And honestly, really not sure how a short goblin carries a blunderbuss. But carry on!

The guards are around an open grate in the floor that leads to the sewers. "I'm not going down there!" one says. "They don't pay us enough for that!" says another. The sergeant looks over at the newly arrived adventurers, and asks why they are in Edge City. "Adventure and gold" seems to be the common answer. 

"For a gold piece each, if you can track down that rat and bring back what it had." With a yes, our trio heads to the sewers down the stone stairs. 

setting up the game

No, not all these rats were involved

First encounter - they live!

I finally got around to using my Lasers & Dungeons sewer set. Though it is not set up in a particularly logical manner in hindsight. I may re-arrange it for the next foray. I also used another room set for a min-dungeon off of the sewers. Just as with the Discworld series, Edge City has been built on the bones of other cities and so has a fairly vast subterranean ecology. 

One of the characters actually has Naturalist, so caught sight of the slimes before they (slowly) attacked. The gargoyle has an halberd and used it most effectively - he actually got double damage and killed the first slime quickly. Our naturalist lost two arrows missing both shots. The second slime was more difficult to kill, but eventually it too splashed into the water. Which also splashed on the goblin who was none too pleased to have sewer water on him!

Moving up there was a T intersection, and seeing as the left went nowhere, moved to the right. A pipe was flooding the sewers with more effluvia, increasing the stench a great deal. Getting over that, there was a sewer entrance to their left, bit a glint of something shiny in the other area caught their eye. Off in the corner, there appeared to be a debris pile caught up in the current. Having a flying gargoyle really helped: he flew over, made a good landing, and found a small chest with some gold a jewel in the pile. On his way back, the goblin was attacked by a giant sewer frog! The gargoyle's pole attack helped, and the naturalist got one shot off but missed due to the surprise nature. A quick battle ensued, and the giant frog was killed. 

Moving back to the sewer entrance, they could see a slight shadow and what looked like torchlight a few rooms ahead. There was what seemed like a bridge over actually clear water, which took most of the aroma away. The walls themselves, once they crossed the bridge and went through the archway, were an entirely different style; ornate and well-crafted. 

The next room a giant spider attacks. While our roguish naturalist got away, the spider attacked the goblin and managed a bite! And dealt 4 points of damage. And he failed his strength roll and succumbed to the spider venom! And sadly, he was the only one who spoke Gargoyle! The spider got attacked again but it scuttled away, having gotten a taste and not wanting to die. Raising his torch in a salute to their fallen comrade, the spiderweb get torched but fizzles out pretty quickly as it is also fairly damp in these sewers. 

Passing two tall statues, they come into the room with two torches lit. A barrel is against the wall, a bookcase covers one wall, and there is an open casket with a skeleton holding a sword, a statue behind the casket, and a banner with a golden gryphon behind that. The statue is holding a ruby-pommeled sword. Taking the sword, our remaining adventurers notice that the stone statues are now watching our rogue. The gargoyle leaves the room, but the statues ignore him. Attempting to throw the sword to the gargoyle, the statues catch the sword instead. Grabbing the beer barrel with its odd arms and legs, the rogue gets ready to leave. Running through the door, both statues missed him. They are unable to move, so he made it safe and sound. I had more normal bad rolling here, unlike the spider.

Retracing their steps, they leave. The guards ask where the goblin was and try to pay only 2 pieces of gold. A fairly rapid discussion and they get 3 gold for the return of the beer golem. And then the game ended. 

I think it went pretty well: we did lose one character, and I forgot to give out XP which I'll do now. The gargoyle will get 100 XP for his killing attacks, as well as the player playing in character for both the goblin and the gargoyle. Our rogue the same - though not as effective in a fight, he did spot the ambushes other than the giant frog. And Nate always plays in character well. 

The frog did not get his goblin snack

I also got to use a lot of my stuff which is good. Yes, most of the creature encounters were set up around what I have, just like the original D&D games. And yes, this will be re-run for the next group so I'll leave it up, though I may re-arrange the sewers a bit. And they may find a dead goblin with a blunderbuss in the sewers...Of course, TFT is hex based, but the tiles work well enough though the tiles are square based. I think it did help in setting up how things fit together and the space. What I can't figure out yet is a good way of using all my fake coins, though they did open the little chest I do have and get the gold. Along with an odd stone disk that they do not know what to do with yet (and neither do I but I'll make something fun up for the next outing!)

Too many rules?

I like books a lot. I read them for enjoyment mostly, but also to learn. In the role-playing world, there are a lot of books on rules, how to play, as well as lore, settings and a near infinite number of random tables to generate just about anything. In a discussion I had with my group (a really brief one, so really more of a comment than a discussion) it was mentioned that I don't need to have rules for everything. And honestly, yes, that is true in general. Yet without any rules, we are just playing make-believe without an agreed-upon framework of assumptions. 

I favor consistency in most things. Heck - I write software for a living so consistency is a job requirement: that program had better do the same thing with the same set of inputs as it always does. Idempotency is a thing we strive for in software. And my game worlds also require that self-same consistency. Which is why I do like rules and more tightly structured game mechanics. And just as in software development, there are many frameworks to choose from. In fact we're rewriting some core software and are making a final decision this week after the environment changed: looks like I am going to be back to writing in .NET again!

For Traveller and all its incarnations, there is a consistent definition of a character, a world, or ships. The details may vary a fair amount (see all the fun trying to reconcile LBB 2 Starships with High Guard ships!) but that is really in the mechanical details more than anything. I will admit I have not read Hero Traveller or T20, but I feel the basic characters are probably pretty close. Not entirely interchangeable, but close enough that it would be relatively simple to convert between systems.

The comment came up about crafting and making magic items in the OSE game. OSE has a bare page on magical research and crafting: it will take a week and cost 500 gold for magical items per level of magical item. Double that for researching new spells. I somehow missed that when I was asked about the druid making magical items. We had a brief offline discussion and I decided that yes, he can create things but at 2 levels below his current level. That is, a level 3 druid can only craft level 1 magical tokens. I had not established a timeframe nor cost. The OSE book does give that info. The Fantasy Trip actually has some detailed tables for making magical things in its world. This includes time, specific ingredients and a few other things. And then I remembered I also had the Ultimate Guide To Crafting as a result of their failed miniature campaign. They were very good about that BTW. And within that giant book, there are some really detailed processes for this as well. Though written for 5e (and he mentioned that we are not playing 5e, but just as with pretty much any game or book, you can always pick and choose what works for your world), it is general enough that I feel we can use this as well if he wants. I'll see if he wants to borrow my book and read up on it. My guess is not: most of that group is "yes I read the rules but we're going to do it all differently and just keep this one thing." Though to be fair, they usually stick within the RAW, just ignore chunks of it which is mostly what RPGs do in order to better fit the game the players want.

Anyway - the crux of the question: too many rules? When I run a game, or play in one, I value an internally consistent world. Part of that is my personality, and part of my profession. But the rules are just the starting point: all RPGs have the implied rule 0, the rule of cool. But that only works if there are other rules so that you can't always "win" or succeed in everything you do in a game. It is like art or any creative endeavor: there are some initial rules, but after you learn those, you can draw outside the lines as you now know where those lines are. But for me, you first have to know where those lines are.

So yes, there can be too many rules. Equally, there can be too few rules. And as there are many types of people, there are many types of games running across the gamut of rule complexity. From Robin's Laws, we have the gamut of players that closely correlates with the mechanics. Ranging from the storyteller gamer that has the rules favor the GM in that the "crunchy bits weak, vague or abstract" to the power gamer where the "crunchy bits are powerful and tightly defined". What this means, at least to me, is that the vague rules favor the GM by allowing a lot more interpretation and freedom to do whatever you want in terms of the game. The tightly defined rules mean that the GM has little say in rulings as things are well-defined mechanically. Fate, for instance, seems fairly rules light with a lot of interpretation available to the game master. Traveller 5, on the other hand, has rules for EVERYTHING pretty much (even if not always well explained!). The Fantasy Trip has the combat and magic rules very tightly defined, but the most other rules and mechanics outside of that are well defined but not as complete. They give the GM more wriggle room for some things.

Now, like most GMs. I tend to pick and choose a fair amount when running games. I try to stick to the books and mechanics, but sometimes you have to draw outside the lines for the game to be fun. Something I am still trying to do even if for whatever reason I am not always comfortable with that. My players are - they just want to have fun and not worry overly much about the mechanics. Sadly, I always worry about the mechanics even if they are not aware of that concern (well, if they read this post then they will know!). One of the reasons my Traveller games do not do well: it is a mechanically complex game, and they really don't care about those mechanics as I do. And I think this also goes into our gaming preferences: most of them want to keep trying new games, new rules, new worlds. I want to understand the game mechanics, play games long enough so that I am not constantly worrying about the rules. Even though I consciously know I don't need to worry about them, I cannot help myself. Yes, I have a fair amount of self-awareness (and self-deprecation) but that does not mean I can do anything about sometimes!

To draw some sort of conclusion to this rambling talk: I don't think you can have too many rules. They don't have to all be used but can be useful as an inspiration on how to do things. Which is what I try to do just not too successfully Sadly, while this does work for RPGs, it does NOT work for software development! I keep getting books that I barely read but can use for inspiration and guidance in gaming. Which reminds me that I need to add more books to my library software!

Now if only I could figure out costing better in fantasy games! Of course, typing that out, I realize that the societies portrayed in these games would not have consistent costing. A larger city would probably charge more for the same food as a small inn in the country. Then you start factoring in availability and demand and the costs can be all over the place. I just need a base amount to start with. And then apply rules based on location, season, and...and yes, more rules!

I need to add more books - just found that the ISBN lookup actually works, so I can just type that in and it fills out the data for me. Cool!

And finally - Waffles. One of the games we play took an interesting turn this last weekend. We managed to rescue a Dryad, being pulled in a slave cart by a very tried donkey and guarded by a Grey Man and 6 mooks. We killed them (the Gery Man almost killed us) and freed the Dryad. My character, an Alligator raised by squirrels, named him Waffles. Originally it was a simple riff from Shrek, but then my character and a snake type of character realized we could have Waffles for breakfast. The Minotaur was not happy with that and was protecting Waffles as best he could. Waffles is now part of the party until my character gets hungry. Which is funny as I also really enjoyed playing my vegetarian Centaur who was the party cook. And there was this 'Gatorman who only ate meat. He did not like my barley stew. Slither came from this image and as I thought it was funny...and pretty sure I may have already posted this story. Happens when you get old (I turn 60 this year!)

Character Challange 31 of 31: Maddox Wyrlet, Grav Racer

And I am finishing weakly and late! But finishing so I get a finisher's medal, right? I used to run marathons (and running may be a strong word) but I did finish them. So leaning on the sporting side of things, and I have the Foreven Worlds Careers book so may as well use it as there is an Athlete career in there. 

Initial stats are 748B87 so average strength, clumsy, decent endurance, smart and average education and social standing. Of the three options, I was going to pick electronic sports, such as drones or holo games. But vehicle advancement uses dexterity. Oddly his best chances are in vehicle spots. So off we go into racing, NASCAR better look out!

Term 1

Our rookie starts his training and gets Athletics-0, Carouse-0, Streetwise-0, Drive (Walker-0), Mechanic-0 and Electronics-0. And he must have made some great friends: Pleasure craft - he gets a great deal on a ship. Gain a yacht or two ship shares. Must know people in high places! Of course, a yacht is really, really expensive to maintain! And he just barely survives, only by dint of his intelligence! A close match with death-defying antics. He also makes Rank-1, so no longer a rookie. And picks up Grav-1. 

Term 2

Getting Mechanic-1 so he can work on his own vehicle, he again just barely survives though did not need the intelligence DM. Moving to Rank-2 he gains Electronics-1 so that he can also fix the comms. He also chose to speak up at a rally and was told to just pilot his walker. -1 DM against survival next term!

Term 3

Fortunately, I finally rolled high on the survival, but the ruckus from the previous term seems to have held public opinion against him, as he does not get promoted. However, the reporter covering Maddox Wyrlet falls in love with him, and they get married. He gains Grav Vehicle-2. 

Term 4

Sadly, Maddox, fresh from his honeymoon, threw a race and was caught. Bella promptly divorced our gambler, not knowing he had gambling debts to pay. He does gain Gambling-1 but gets a -1 on all benefits. Yes, I rolled snake eyes on survival. 

Having 5 rolls, he musters out of racing with Cr50,000 (the gambling at least off-set the -1), his grav racer (also known as a speeder) and the walker which he is barely proficient in, and gained a bit of wisdom with a +1 intelligence.

Maddox Wyrlet 748C87 age 34, ex-Grav Racer

Grav vehicle-2, Electronic-1, Mechanical-1, Gambling-1, Athletics-0, Carouse-0, Streetwise-0.

While he started in construction and knows how to pilot the walker he has, Maddox was drawn to the race circuit for grav racers. While working more as a mechanic at first, he learned to maintain most of vehicles that Team G used. In fact, he impressed the insanely rich owner that he was actually given a well-used yacht, Eventually, he started actually racing. His career was mired for years when he spoke out in a social protest against the overbearing government of his homeworld. Part of that was the tax burden his yacht was causing him. He took to gambling, thinking he was smart enough to beat the odds. Despite this, he married Chaleinne, the girl of his dreams. Like his racing career, it did not end well when he was busted for throwing a race in order to pay his gambling debts. She left him. Now his yacht has been impounded for taxes due and he is desperate for a job. And can even provide a ship should someone pay the impound fees...

Maddox and his flying machine

2024 Challenge

Captain Tardis Challenge Site

Day 1: Classic Traveller Trace Hoolens

Day 2: Mechanoid Invasion P.A.V.M. Marissa Key

Day 3: Classic Traveller SubSector Navy Rony Sonnet

Day 4: OSE Witch Bellatrix

Day 5: Mechanoid Invasion Commando

Day 6: Planet Mercenary Captain

Day 7: Corsair Captain Erica "Fierce" Kelly

Day 8: Classic Traveller Pirate

Day 9: Amazon Nasliope

Day 10: OSE Merchant Usman

Day 11: Brass Rings Gouda Parsnip

Day 12: The Fantasy Trip Barbarian

Day 13: Planet Mercenary: Legal Counsel

Day 14: OSE Grace Carver, Guard

Day 15: OSE Kobold Shaman

Day 16: OSE Dungeon Duck

Day 17: Traveller Zhondani

Day 18/19: OSE Guards

Day 20: Mechanoid Invasion Communication Engineer

Day 21: Dolmenwood Breggle

Day 22: OSE Gnoll

Day 23: Traveller Navy

Day 24: Dolmenwood Grimmalkin

Day 25-27: Classic Traveller K'kree

Day 28: TFT Master Physicker Erirderlun Earthfury

Day 29: Classic Traveller Scout

Character Challenge 30 of 31: Uncle Heinlich

We are back to the vigilante game and the Grey Cat will roam again. And as a result, think I may expand on her hapless Uncle Heinlich. From her character write up:

Uncle Heinlich (from the old country; similar to the aunt in the 66 Batman show, so clueless but was her guardian until she turned 21). Manages the various holdings though questions some of her choices.

Seeing as I don't really need stats, I've added to my Heimlich Codex. The codex has 8 Heimlich's now. Most with a niece they need to take care of. From that entry:

Heinlich Lincoln, the slightly befuddled uncle of Anna Elizabth Lincoln. Her parents were killed when she was 16, and being the eldest brother of her mother, he stepped in to raise the orphan. Known as “Little Orphan Anna” in the yellow journals, Heinlich has done his best to raise her though she did not need much. He is totally ignorant of her double life as the Gray Cat, a costumed vigilante.

A bit soft in the head, and very soft in the heart, he is quite jovial. Speaking with a heavy German accent, he is often misunderstood and barely speaks English. Short at just over five feet, he is nearly as round as he is tall. Some have laughed at the man, yet despite his appearances, he is a shrewd businessman. Helping to run his niece’s burgeoning business empire, he is on the board of three of the various companies. 

He is also completely unaware of the Cat’s Lair under the mansion they live in. Originally part of an abandoned subway station, Anna has had contractors expand it out quite a bit, each working on a different section and not knowing the full extent of the updates. Heinlich just believes that the wine cellar is larger than it was when Anna’s parents were alive. 

With a twinkle in his eye, he offers guests at the mansion drinks and appetizers, made by one of the several maids that keep the mansion clean. He is a bit uncertain about Joseph Quentin, Anna’s trainer. But as his niece has been doing gymnastics since a wee lass, he hopes that there is nothing untoward happening in their intense training sessions. 

from the Codex

2024 Challenge

Captain Tardis Challenge Site

Day 1: Classic Traveller Trace Hoolens

Day 2: Mechanoid Invasion P.A.V.M. Marissa Key

Day 3: Classic Traveller SubSector Navy Rony Sonnet

Day 4: OSE Witch Bellatrix

Day 5: Mechanoid Invasion Commando

Day 6: Planet Mercenary Captain

Day 7: Corsair Captain Erica "Fierce" Kelly

Day 8: Classic Traveller Pirate

Day 9: Amazon Nasliope

Day 10: OSE Merchant Usman

Day 11: Brass Rings Gouda Parsnip

Day 12: The Fantasy Trip Barbarian

Day 13: Planet Mercenary: Legal Counsel

Day 14: OSE Grace Carver, Guard

Day 15: OSE Kobold Shaman

Day 16: OSE Dungeon Duck

Day 17: Traveller Zhondani

Day 18/19: OSE Guards

Day 20: Mechanoid Invasion Communication Engineer

Day 21: Dolmenwood Breggle

Day 22: OSE Gnoll

Day 23: Traveller Navy

Day 24: Dolmenwood Grimmalkin

Day 25-27: Classic Traveller K'kree

Day 28: TFT Master Physicker Erirderlun Earthfury

Day 29: Classic Traveller Scout