Strange New Worlds 1, Part 4

A quick note - Strange New Worlds 1 - Part x titles are because I am still working on the 1st world and the prep for getting there. Once I start playing, I'll probably tag these posts with Strange New Worlds or something so I can find them again. 

Anyway, poking through my spaceship collection, and as much as I like the 0Hr ships, they are not normally a good fit for Traveller due to the lack of sufficient fuel. Which I can ignore honestly - there are interstitial spaces for fuel. And I don't want to use the classic Scout ships as I want something a bit larger, and dare I say, more of a rag-tag sort of thing as this is a private/governmental excursion. Plus, if I have minis, I can make pictures :) 

Anyway, I wanted support craft and the 0Hr Trinity fits the bill in a different way than expected. This ship, if I translate it to Traveller terms, would be a battletender almost: the primary ship has the jump drive and carries 2 externally docked ships. Which are almost as big as the main ship. If I convert the lower decks, which are drop pods, into fuel tanks, and replace the 2 flight decks on the support ships also as fuel tanks, it then is close enough! The support ships, when joined to the main ship, can transfer fuel. 

Separation

Plus, each of the 3 ships can carry shuttles. This gives us 3 long term ships for scouting out a system - get enough distance between them and with shared sensors a good 3d mapping of the system should be relatively straight-forward. I'll have another post with the worked-up details for these ships. 

I am also thinking of sending along a fuel tanker. While I'll have fuel scoops on the support ships at least, it may be that they will want to jump into an empty hex. The Humboldt ship is mostly tankage so could carry reserves. Though that ship is a bit more cramped, so thinking the crews may want to rotate to the larger Trinity ships.

Fuel Tanker

Thinking this tiny fleet of 2 jump-capable craft and 2 additional large support craft, along with a bevy of shuttles, will work for my joint exploration trip. While also not having too many NPCs around.

Neither ship will be new - decades old probably. But definitely space-worthy for long voyages. They'll have their annual refurb and maintenance done just prior to leaving, giving us a year before we have to worry about that again.

Still to do:

• Translate the ships to Traveller. The tanker will be 1G, 2J ship, the main Trinity ship 2G/2J, and the support ships probably 3G/0J. But I'll have to work out the tonnages based on the ship information and go backwards from there
• Names for the ships!
• Plan the fleet hierarchy as this is a joint venture. Who is in charge of what. I know we'll need 4 ship captains, and that the 2 support ship captains are under the main ship, but the tanker is its own thing. But there needs to be an expedition head, quite possibly Juila Johon as she is one of the big financiers of this operation and wants to live the glory days.
• Finalize the ship charter and all that. Mostly from the previous post but maybe make some boilerplate legal-like thing. Just for fun.
• Generate the main NPCs. The vast majority, until needed, will just be roles.

And then start the exploration! And dice rolls! And read through the World Builder's Book for ideas, maybe even create my own tables. And re-read the Traveller Solo book as there is the Scout Survey Campaign in there. And I think I've got the 2nd edition as I bought the 1st. So there will be more things to do. 

Finally - I've been with my new company 3 months now. Still a bit stressed but a lot less than I was before. My manager is really nice as are all the people I've dealt with. And will never see - this is the 1st job I've had that is fully remote from the start.

Strange New Worlds 1, Part 3

Looking into a few other resources, I did find this in the Mongoose World Builder's Book:

This tells us a few things about how long we'll need to stay in each system. 

Next, let's look at our starting point in the D'Arlee Quadrant, and decide who and what is behind the exploration. Looking at the map below, the D'Arlee Quadrant is entirely surrounded by the Imperium. The systems in the lower right, marked by X, are non-explored worlds. You may notice I did mark one as Corsairs, which is the system that the Corsairs game ran on. And yes, it does exist in MTU and there is, of course, a history there. Which sadly we never got to in our games.

The question is: who is exploring? 

1. The Imperium, which can leverage a lot of resources. But is it worth their while?
2. The League of Independent Planets, which has far fewer resources but, like the Imperium, is trade-based and this could open up new markets?
3. Private company of some sort, either for trade, for science and exploration, or some other purpose.

I'll also note that the map already indicates gas giants, and honestly after a few years probably the probability of a world in the inhabited zone. It is not like they are just going blindly out into the void. So: we have at least a class I survey of those systems based on probably decades of work with a much higher tech level than we have. And, perhaps, there have been traders already out there. Corsairs was colonized centuries ago, and while its unique system causes issues for grav drives, that is probably unique there.

But back to my question, as I am going to be running my solo game and exploring the unknown. Do I want to run as the Imperium, the League of Independent Planets, or a 3rd party similar to the Leviathan adventure? Since I am running it for me, I'm going back to my early history of the Quadrant - it was explored simply to be explored. It will be a joint venture: the League of Independent Planets, and the great-great-great granddaughter of Baroness Felicia D’Arlee Johon. Johon is an Imperial world, Amber zoned (and no idea why: that system was never expanded and we never had any adventures there). The League is supplying some of the support ships, while Juila Johon, utilizing her family fortunes, will supply the main scout ship with some providence for trade as well. 

We'll need the main ship, and it will have to be large enough for an extended trip of months. We'll make sure it is fresh out of its yearly maintenance, so we have a full year. The Johon Expedition, as it is named, has the following goals:

1. Give detailed system information on each system it explores
2. If possible, see if there are any trading opportunities
3. Search for resources that, despite a multi-jump trip, would be worth exploiting
4. and from the ancient vids: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before!

I'll go through the ships I have, both Traveller and others, and find something that will work. I want a relatively small crew, no more than 30-50 or so people. Many will be scientists, ex-Scouts and the like. But, like the game I thought I may try to run, there will be room for security, pilots and others. I figure the traditional landing party to explore new worlds will work. 

But for the moment, we have the broad outlines of the next adventure. I may even write it up similar to a classic adventure book. I will have to figure out a new desktop publishing tool, as Publisher (which was simple, easy to use and did decent stuff) is sadly no longer supported and Microsoft is actually removing edit access. Which, while I understand from a security viewpoint, really sucks. 

No real plans on how often I'll get to this: if I set a specific schedule, it becomes work. 

We also played another game of Windward, bringing in the Black Market. Which also can bring in the Kroka, a leviathan of the deeps that has 10 attack dice! Like our last game, I started with a small headstart, then got really far behind. But again luck was with me. My friend got to the notoriety needed to win, but that just starts the last cycle. Like other games sometimes do, just getting 1st to the winning points does not mean you win: the other players get a last turn. I managed to tie on my last turn. The next turn he managed to get a red crester, and turning in all his gas got 7 points ahead. The wind was blowing in the right direction for me, so I ended up on the Black Market, and called out the Kroka. While it had 10 dice and I only had 8 or so, I also had a few cards that just barely put me over the edge. And defeating that beast gives 9 notoriety. Meaning I won the game, though it was via some lucky dice.

And remember, for me, Windward is also on the Corsairs planet. So our crew may find it!

 

Game Balance

There are all sorts of game balance ideas and theories. Adjacent to that sense of balance is also a player balance. In Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering, he posits the following scale:

Running a game with a mix of player types can be difficult. The group I've been playing with for the last few years heavily leans to the storyteller side of things: the rules are not as important as the story we are telling. Unfortunately, I want to run and play in games that are a lot crunchier, as I like rules and knowing how things should work. I enjoy playing all games, but I like the idea of a structure behind things. Probably why I have so many books with rules for creating all sorts of world things: Spectacular Settlements, Dangerous Destinations, Organic Towns, and so forth. All these are rules for creating and maintaining the world around you.

Are they necessary? No, we can just make things up as needed. In one of the older OSE games one of the players wanted to create some things, and I have a book on crafting and stuff like that. He firmly rejected that as being too complicated, so we dropped it. Same for Traveller: as no one in my group enjoys most of the rules, the few unsuccessful times I ran a Traveller game the vast majority of the rules were hidden from the players. Not for me, as I had the NPCs take care of it. For me, those rules are part of what makes the game fun.

The last few games we played have been so rules lite that it was essentially just a game of make-believe, with some performative dice rolling that really did not make much of a difference. Which is okay: we've some good game masters that can pull that off. But I like rules and knowing how things work. Probably a good thing since I've been in software development my whole life, and that is all about rules and how things work.

But beyond player / GM preferences for how crunchy a game is, there is a balance to the humans playing the game. Our group is pretty diverse - from a teenage girl to guys in their 60s still playing after decades. Which is great as it brings all sorts of perspectives to the table. But we are also diverse in terms of politics, education, and social skills. As mentioned far too often, I am not great in social situations. I have what I call foot in mouth disease as what I say can often come out wrong. But I also cannot continually hold back when I see something that bothers me. And to be honest, I have held back a lot over the years. That came to a head the other day, and while I did not handle it particularly well, I do stand by my opinion. Having been made fun of in the past for how I spoke (I had years of speech therapy, and you can imagine how well other primary school children react to anyone who is different like that), it bothers me when people think it is funny to make fun of other people's impediments. To me that was not funny, it was cruel. And from that, our group may be dissolved after years of playing. 

Now, I could have handled it better. How it came out was me being all preachy and making everything a huge moral issue. Sadly, for me, a lot of things are moral issues. I do a lot of thinking, and I've been trained in critical thinking - that master's in liberal arts is all about thinking about things from a variety of viewpoints. I don't accept things at face value - I have to dig into them to see what the underlying truths are. And yes, there is some correlation to crunchiness here if we want to draw even more parallels. I've not always been a good person, and I am not always a good person now though I strive to be. And we've managed to brush off differences before but this time I think the others have also reached their limit in dealing with me and my social quirks. Pretty sure (and internet doctoring here and you know how reliable that is!) had I been born 40 years later I'd probably have a few labels on me. I know it is not a single issue here, nor is it all any one person's fault. But as per a text message later: "some people just shouldn't be around each other. It's natural to discover such things." 

So: looks like my RPG stuff will be solo mode for a while. Still hoping I can get my previous co-workers into an RPG game at some point, but that seems like a vanishingly small chance. And while there are other online groups out there, as much as it often overwhelms me, I really do prefer face-to-face playing. And I'd be far too nervous around others for the first few sessions, though it may be worth it after a while. We'll see what happens: one advantage of getting older is I have learned a lot of patience, even if some of my patience for what I see as a moral or ethical wrong has apparently grown smaller.

hey, is there a game here? Raccoon on the back deck

sometimes it may be better to not get what you want: pretty sure that the turkey can beat up my indoor cat Baby Bear

Crafting From Trash

I'll have to admit I buy cookies sometimes, as I looked at the plastic that held those cookies and thought: hey, this could be a craft project!

A bit of paint and what was going to be thrown out can now be a hanger, or a power station, or something interesting!

I've got some greebles probably somewhere, so it may get some additional spicing up!

And once I get tired of it, it can go into the trash as it was originally planned. But I see interesting shapes and want to do things like this sometimes. 

The ship minis are mostly 0Hr, though the Scout was a 3D print from Shapeways I think. The robots are a Reapers Chronoscape set I got years ago when I backed one of their projects (and still have a few boxes in front of me that one of these days I may have to see what is inside of them and get around to painting whatever is there.

And yes, a number of rapid-fire posts recently. Though work did promise that I'd have a real project pretty soon (I've just been going over training stuff and the code for the most part). 

Windward, Game 3

While my regular RPG gaming group is on a hiatus for some indeterminate time (I am 80% certain we will regroup, but with additional soft rules in place), I am still playing with another friend. We played our 3rd game of Windward today. I started off strong, then through some good strategic playing as well as luck, he pulled ahead. Far ahead for most of the game. He played the achievement cards well! He got to notoriety points to win, but the game allows all remaining players get a last turn. As we had added the achievements, I had 3 pieces of luck: 

1. the wind was going in a good direction for me, allowing me to get the just turned over "move 15 spaces in a single turn" achievement
2. I actually managed to get 2 red cresters in a pair of turns, and process them (their teeth are worth 4 notoriety apiece)
3. I actually had a fuel card, that allowed me that one extra move to get to the port and trade in everything

So I actually came out ahead at the end despite thinking I had lost 2 turns earlier. Now - we both forgot that this was his last turn, and rather than trade in gas for more notoriety, he opted for canons. I think had we remembered, it would have either been a tie or he would have won.

The funny thing was that, as I was setting up the game, I read the battle cheat cards. And realized we had not been doing battles correctly the first 2 games! There is a bit more strategy than luck: the attacker and defender both have to allocate any canons before rolling the dice. But both sides can hold off using cards and any other bonuses until after the rolls. That changes things a good deal. Regardless, we had a good time. Next game we may try one of the expansions that came with the 2nd Kickstarter: pirates with their own trading post and money, the white crester, scouts and the drifts. A few more variations have yet to be played. We're hoping one of his kids will want to play as a 3rd player would also change the dynamics. And who would not want to hunt flying whales in a fictional world? And I am also glad I backed that 2nd project, as it came with game trays so that the setup and takedown is very fast now: I can get the game set up in 5 minutes or so and take down 5-10 minutes. Though everything, despite being a much larger box. does not quite fit into the big box. The original board does not fit but we use the neoprene one. So that works out okay honestly.

I also backed the latest 0Hr Kickstarter for some retro-style posters. And realized that we could also play a game of Zombicide:Invader on some of the maps I have. We may try that for some variety. And I still have the Scythe game we may want to try as well at some point.

To be honest, I do have some mild social anxiety. I'm okay with 1 person at a time, but several at a time, even if I've known them for years, seems to put some pressure on me. Playing games is worth it to me, and I also know that is all self-induced but knowing that does not really help me. I have no idea why I am on edge when there are people around me, and I fear it is getting worse as I get older. I am hoping we can move past this last issue with the group, but only time will tell. I am hoping it does not end up like my whitewater kayaking: eventually the fear overcame the fun for me. I did almost drown one time, so that fear was warranted! But the guy I was boating with was a lot better than me and wanted to do harder falls. One final trip where I was just getting tossed all over the place and knowing there was pretty dangerous fall ahead unless you hit it just right, was my last trip. While gaming is not life or death, for whatever reason there is that same fear in there, at least in turns of how I am reacting to it. Yeah, I am strange.

And the turkeys were all over the backyard - counted at least 15! 

Strange New Worlds Part 2

I've rolled up the system, though the main world did have some pre-defined values. We have a single star system with a F5V star. The main world orbits in orbit 4 at 1.9AU. Assuming I did my math correctly, this is a 2.3-year orbit. The star is 1.4 time larger than our sun, massing 1.3 times as much.

There are 2 gas giants and a planetoid belt, as well as 5 captured planets. Interestingly, the innermost planet is a tidally locked small gas giant in orbit 1, with a planetoid belt in orbit in orbit 2 and a large gas giant in orbit 5. Orbit 3 is empty. 

Our main world has no satellites; the inner gas giant has none either and the outer gas giant has 11 moons. The captured planets will have no moons. 

A few notes: this sort of data will take some time to calculate. While the planets in stable orbits are easy to find and calculate the orbits of, those 5 captured worlds will take a good bit more time as they are not in the main plane of the system. Refueling is of course simple enough at the gas giant or the main world.

The main world is an early-stage colony. Though how that fits into the OTU timeline is problematic at best, but fortunately this is MTU. As per a text discussion, there were about 400 colonists in cold sleep and the colony ship is now the main base for the people. What they did not know was the large flying creatures are more than dangerous. Bordering on intelligent, they are a menace to the colony. As a result, most of the colony is underground, using thermal and the remaining fusion power plants for power.

Technology-wise, they can maintain TL-7 stuff for the most part. They do have some makers, but most tooling and manufacturing is manual. The flying critters can't really be hurt by most slug weapons, and there were only a few larger weapons that could make a difference. They originally had 3 additional support craft beyond the colony cruiser. Unfortunately, after 3 generations, 1 is now used for spare parts for the other two.

A few questions I need to ponder:

• Where are they from originally?
• Why did they strike out on their own?
• I rolled up government 3: self-perpetuating oligarchy. The original colony board controls the colony, with most positions being hereditary. With the constant threat from above, few have the time or energy to do anything about the situation.
• Do they speak the same language as our potential PCs?

 Probably a few more things to think about for a potential (once I get past my pouting phase) game. 

I'll see about more mapping, but I did manage to get the typical map down with some hexes. Still need to calculate the size of those hexes.

Main world: E765330-7

Starport: E. Just a rough landing field for the remaining 2 support craft, with one used for parts

Size: 7. Just under Earth sized, with a gravity of about .87G. Makes it easier for those giant flying things!

Atmosphere: 6. Standard pressure and oxy/nitro mix

Hydrographics: 57% water. Several large continents

Population: 3, a few thousand people after a few generations from the original 400 colonists. Large families are normal. Will need to dig out Grand Census for some fun things.

Government: 3 - Self-perpetuating oligarchy. Known as the Colony Board, controls all aspects of the nascent colony. Hereditary positions.

Law Level: 0. No law level per se, and going outside everyone usually goes well armed.

Tech Level: 7. Around early 70s. Though there are some higher-tech facilities in the main colony hub: a few fusion generators, medical facilities still have functioning medbeds. There are a few makers that can create most things as well, but the knowledge to maintain a lot of this is starting to go away as people focus on survival. A caste of "magic users" may eventually start the maintenance. Or I've seen too much Star Trek.

Need to come up with a name as well. But - more to come!

Scout Mission: Strange New Worlds 1 Part 1

If I ever get back to running a Traveller game (my last 2 did not do well, but thinking perhaps a more focused approach vs the sandbox approach may be better), I already decided that the Scouting mission would be the way to go to give it more focus on exploring strange, new worlds vs trying to make a living. As pointed out in the previous post, this gives me an opportunity to flesh out MTU a bit.

And so, I'll start with one of the undefined * worlds in the D'Arlee Quadrant. My group was discussing a colony world with giant flying beasts. How that gets handled really depends on so many things: if we have ship weapons, then these are not really an issue. However, the conversation meandered all over the place, and for a pulpier and Traveller-like feel, we want to have tension with these beasts not easily killed and still posing a threat.

Though I did get AI (sorry!) to have a Scout ship shooting a pterodactyl. Despite wanting these to be a threat, powerful weapons really implies they really cannot be a real threat unless you go without weapons. Which did remind me of a college game where my gung-ho marine, in grav power armor and FGMP managed to kill a red dragon. Though she was also killed as apparently dragon flames destroy armor as well (the ref wanted to run a D&D game, so a convenient misjump to a fantasy world. Must have been a lot of fun as I remember it 40+ years later!)

I did some workups of the planet for 57% hydrographics, and will have to work through some Book 6 system generation. But as it has been a while since my last post, figured I'd let you know that things are not entirely standing still.

Though I am thinking of taking a break from gaming with people for a bit: we got into a bit of a disagreement and I had it pointed out that I do tend to take a high moral ground about some things and that this "high moral ground" comes across as patronizing. As with many things, this is not all on me, but some of it most assuredly is. And to be honest, I do have a hard time in social situations for a number of reasons, and the gaming has been a bit of stress as much as I also like it. (In fact, the person I am having a hard time did call me socially retarded, which has all sorts of connotations that bother me. And I've been ignoring that as just the way he speaks but that coupled with a few other things finally got us into the aforementioned disagreement). Had I been born 40 years later, I am sure there would be a few labels on me. Though not sure if that is really the case or just me internet-doctoring! Regardless, I may back off a bit with the group and try to figure out if I am really being that obnoxious or if some are just more sensitive. It is, of course, somewhere in the middle but I feel I am the only one trying to make accommodations sometimes. And then I worry that I am just feeling sorry for myself! Ahh, naval gazing at its best and worst! Never fear - this too shall pass, but every once in a while, I do get into a funk. Just like the stress from the new job (which thankfully is a lot better) this stress will eventually go away. But I just may need some time. But I'll still post as I like thinking and writing about gaming, just the actual practice is, at the moment, something I don't think I want to do.

Windward, and maybe a Traveller Scouting game

Last weekend I finally got to play Windward, a game that I've had for a number of years. We messed up the first round or so, but in the end, it is a relatively simple game. It is just the rules as written are not particularly well-done, even after their 2nd Kickstarter for the expansion and deluxe version. But we had a good bit of fun, and you cannot go wrong with sky whales! But we figured a few things out as we went along, and the next game we'll have a better handle on things. 

player board and my hired crew

And I've been thinking a lot about why I cannot seem to run a good Traveller game with my current group. Probably a primary reason is that they prefer fantasy over SF for the most part. And Traveller runs both a sandbox SF RPG universe but also adds some limits to the style of universe (and this is from conversations on COTI and a few other blogs I've read, so nothing original other than me realizing it!). It wants to do a harder version of pulp-style science fiction: people have to do things, and it is not so much an extrapolation of science and technology in the real world, but one based on the stories of the first half of the 20th century. It came out well before the cyberpunk/AI/transhumanism themes became prevalent in the SF world. 

And honestly, I like it that way. Traveller is great for things like early Heinlein, 70s TV shows like Space:1999 and UFO (though I actually have the Space:1999 RPG but doubt I'll ever run it). It cannot run a Star Trek or Star Wars style of game: those have entirely different technological assumption underpinnings. Instantaneous interstellar communication would change a great number of things and break the basic idea of Traveller. Even cheap spaceships would have a huge impact (my pet peeve with Star Wars is everyone seems to be able to afford a starship, they never worry about fuel or life support unless it becomes THE plot point. And even a small single-seater ship is capable of vast interstellar journeys. Without a bathroom). 

However, I've been thinking that if I perhaps did an exploratory game instead. I'd limit career options to Scouts, Scientists and military careers, and they would just be the crew of a ship. I'd also reduce fuel usage by 50% and life support as well. That would allow double jumping with the same tankage and not cost so much for life support. Which would not matter much for the players as they would probably be the "boots on the ground" for our planet of the week adventure. Basically, structure it around an episodic TV format. Plus it would allow me to flesh out that section of the D'Arlee Quadrant that has been empty since college! Though I did stick the world of Corsairs there!

Time Keeps on Slipping, Slipping

The new job has been a bit time consuming. Which eats into my mental ability to do much of anything else it seems. It will settle down, it always does.

Last weekend one of the players had car trouble and could not make it, so we ended up playing classic Zombicide instead. I screwed up on the car rules, but we did win (though I feel we cheated).

And I've been playing a couple of other games with my buddy that shows up - while we started with The Fantasy Trip with his kids, teenagers being teenagers and a few other things, meant that they eventually stopped playing. So, we played Zombicide as well and now are moving on through a few of the other games I have for some variety. Which reminds me - need to find a game for tomorrow and get it set up before he shows up. Maybe we'll try Windward this time!

Sadly, not a lot of Traveller things going on for me. While it is my favorite game, I just cannot get a good game going with this group. Part of it is me, but only part of it. I've even stopped working on the software, though I may revisit that again. But as I spend all day right now in software, after hours I need a break. And I am, honestly, depressed by seeing the stuff others are doing over on COTI. Not sure how much of that is AI-driven vs the old-fashioned way of doing it yourself, but regardless it is very impressive.

Which actually does have a Traveller-like connection: over on COTI there are numerous interesting conversations, and one being that a lot of the stuff Travellers do could be automated. My response to that is that it then becomes Passengers. The conceit of Traveller is a pulp-style of science fiction where characters do stuff, not just jump aboard a starship or vehicle and say "go there". I'm re-reading some old Heinlein stories, and Starman Jones is about an astrogator. And their job is all about doing the math to punch it into the computer. I can see this sort of thing as the impetus behind that skill. Yes, computers could do all that. But this is Traveller, a SF RPG for a more pulp-style of science fiction. If I want something to reflect where I think technology is going versus where Traveller had its tech levels, I'd really play something else. And with all the AI now, to be really realistic I fear it would have to be a post-apocalyptic type of game. Or a "utopia" where we don't do anything at all and everything is fully automated. 

I'll just leave it with this image I found. And one of the things that does have me worried is people starting to lose the ability to even think anymore. And I hate that Lego added their smart block - can we not just let kids use their imagination? Sorry, old man screaming at the sky I suppose.

Running Traveller Games

I've tried running a few Traveller games with my current group, and sadly it never really seems to work out well. While part of it is me, I think another part is that Traveller is, in many ways, a lot different than most RPGs.

The obvious differences start with it being a level-less game. Though it is really does have levels - your skill levels. But: you don't start out as a kid off the turnip wagon. You start play usually as a middle-aged person who has already had a full life. You start the game already leveled up.

Which brings up the 2nd point: there is no reward other than credits and surviving. Most games you level up, improving stats or skills. At some point you become basically gods depending on the game, though not all games do it that way obviously. Traveller, no matter how long your character has been in play, can be killed by a laser blast as easily as dying in character generation (which is another major difference!) And yes, there are rules for improvement. But it takes a lot of in-game time! And you can still fail to learn anything new.

And for my group, the nail in the coffin, so to speak, is that space travel in the far future is expensive. Getting a ship is a major expense. While I understand a lot of those rules are designed to force the player into taking risks to just be able to survive, to players used to Star Wars or Star Trek, having to work for an adventure just does not go over well. Add in the mechanics for fuel, jump, and the deliberate "communication at the speed of ships" and it is a SF universe they just don't enjoy. Personally, I have no idea how the economics of the Star Wars or Star Trek universes work: people have spaceships as easily as people have cars now it seems. And unless it is a plot point, never worry about fuel or life support.

I'll admit a large part is on me, and I've tried more rules-light versions where they had benefactors and NPCs to handle all those details. Details I like for a number of reasons, and I can work with that. And I get stressed a good bit beyond my normal levels of stress as Traveller is my favorite RPG (you never forget your first love!) and want them to like it as much as I do. 

I cannot compare our games to my college games. First, 40+ year old memories are always burnished to a high shine, and second. most of us in that group all owned and both refereed and played Traveller. We lived Traveller for those glorious years. And we were in our late teens, early 20s. That is an entirely different gamer than those of us *cough* a bit older now.

Anyway, between a new, high-intensity job and my desire to make them like the game too much, the last game fizzled out. I think I mentioned I may just take a break from running games for a while: still adjusting to a new job, and also very disappointed in myself. To be honest, I feel make a better assistant referee I think: I love creating maps, deck plans, NPCs and the like. But effectively running a game seems like something I am just not doing well. 

However, I know I'll try again anyway. Though I may do the Space:1889 concept instead and so bypass some of those pesky OTU details that they seem to not particularly enjoy. I just love the game too much to give up so easily!

Traveller in a Space:1889 Theme

I have an art book by this guy, Alex Alice, and, while I've never played Space:1889, I think I could at least try a 1-shot using some basic Traveller rules based on the aesthetics of this art. The book is also beautiful.

Alex Alice

Basic premise is very Edger Rice Burroughs: Mars, Venus and the other planets can be visited and have their own biomes. You fly through space via the aether and aether engines.

The way I'd run this, and this is an early idea so I may draft more actual rules later, has the basic stuff as follows:

1. Classic Traveller Book 1 & Supplement 4 careers only. But also limit TL options to TL4 (late 19th/early 20th century analog)
1. Using what I understand the TNE way works: roll 7 times, pick the 6 you want and put in the attribute you want
2. no rolling to get into the career - automatic
3. roll then select table for skills (my normal house rule)
4. failing survival => leave service or die and start over again
2. Ship rules
1. Fuel is not really required - aether engines works very differently and does not require the same space/fuel. So very small relative to the ships
2. life support is still needed - takes a larger percentage of the ship and I'll need to figure out a good amount required per person/per day. 
3. Ships can be made of light metals and glass, and you can tell a lot from the style where it comes from (nationality)
4. Can fly on planets and in space, but not underwater. They will float on top.
5. No external weapons? People get out in bulky space suits and fire weapons? Or turrets / shup guns are available?
6. Speeds
1. max atmospheric
2. max in the aether / between worlds: calculate days for trips to destinations? Different aether engines that do have some correlation between size/mechanics/ship mass. Tiny engines can power gliders and personal flight wings, larger ones for ships to traverse the heavens. Details to be mulled and hopefully written out but may use the same or similar tables from book 2. But will probably work with, other than the moon, something like 1 week to Mars or Venus, +/- days based on engine, 3 weeks to Jupiter, 5 weeks to Saturn, etc. Will have to look at distances again. But I do want to maintain the week trope if I can with some minor adjustment for a better aether engine or engineer.
3. Universe
1. Earth analog, 1890 maybe?
2. Mars as per ERB / art book. Native life includes sentients; Mars Princess is currently on Earth at the Expo (starting point of game?). Dying race?
3. Venus as per ERG / art book, prehistoric environments, no intelligent life
4. Combat
1. always my weak point!
2. armor may work as per a discussion on COTI where the armor level is the number of dice to subtract from damage inflicted which may be interesting:
1. Leather/Synth = Armor 1D
2. Cloth = Armor 2D
3. Combat = Armor 3D (old school plate armor - see image below)
4. Battle Dress = Armor 4D (not in this game)
3. range DMs as per rules with DMs based on range. 8+ to hit

Plate armor (more Alex Alice)

Adventure ideas:

1. At the World Fair they meet a sponsor who requires a small crew for a trip to Mars to fetch something for the Princess
1. all is at it seems, and the crew can meet the last Princess of Mars with her blessings to get the golden seal
2. the sponsor is trying to curry favor with the Princess and Martians and is wanting to retrieve her golden seal from Mars and trade it for favors.
3. The sponsor is working for a rival faction on Earth and want to steal the golden seal and hold it hostage for forcing the Martians to do something
4. The sponsor wants to kill off the Princess' parents for some nefarious reason. The characters may notice that the ship has a few untrusty looking members and more guns than you may expect
5. There is another wanting to retrieve the golden seal and there will be a race to the Red Planet. One of the two is working for the Princess, the other against. Which one are you with?
6. There is nothing to fetch, the Princess is actually sending a message to Mars with the pretense of retrieving the seal. That request is a hidden message to the Martians.
2. A hunter wants to hire the group to go to Venus
1. All is as it seems. Base on one of the several Classic Traveller Hunter adventures
2. All is at it seems, but the hunter does have enemies. Who may be wanting to do their nefarious things. Attempts to sabotage the ship before or during the trip, as well as attempts on the planet itself would be interesting and challenging.
3. The hunter is using this as a pretense to "accidently" kill a rival on Venus. 
4. The hunter is hunting something that is, for reasons, illegal to kill. The players may not find out until sometime on the way there and unable to back out.
5. The hunter is really a spy and wanting to get intel on a foreign power's bases on the planet.
6. The hunter is very inept and kills himself on Venus. What do the players do?

Dolmenwood Session 4: Fog Lake and a Goblin Warren

The group decides to continue to Fog Lake, despite it taking an extra day. But - they could just follow the river down to search for the shrine of St. Wort. Which, as none have any real ranger type skills, was probably faster as it was likely they would get lost. Especially the way we roll. From the Campaign Guide, they meet Duncan Mudmurloe:

A stiff, lanky human man in his mid-thirties, with dry, pallid skin and an anaemic moustache. Dresses in courtly breeches, jacket, and absurdly high, powdered wig, even when toiling besideFogLake. Mudmurloe is the “gentleman’s gentleman” of Jollie Oistace Pollard (p328), and hails from High-Hankle. His duties have, of late, tended more and more to the manufacture of Azoth at Fog Lake, which his master has been consuming and demanding in ever-increasing quantities.

We've determined that Azoth is really just crack as they have to smoke it and experience out of body experiences. But nothing much was going on around the lake, and the manservant of Jollie Oistace Pollard of High Hankle was just cooking his drugs by the lake. Camping that night after a meal of fish cooked over a campfire, the crew gets up, and along with Duncan head downstream. The only thing of note was a very loud owl that Elrod swore was sitting right outside his tent.

It is a nice day, and the river is a pretty easy walk. A but before lunch, though, they see a wagon with what seems to be a dead horse. Getting closer they see that the horse has been mauled, and there are bloody pawprints heading further south. Checking inside, Elrod finds that there are 2 young goblins, Snotnose and Rockbutt. Rockbutt was asking about his parents. Elrod said he was not sure where they were. When asked about the horse, well, I cannot recall now what he said. 

no animals other than plastic ones were harmed in the filming of this scene

Deciding to leave the crack dealer to watch the child goblins, they followed the tracks. Not too far along they came along upon a bloodied female goblin, Starrock. She was the mother and witnessed the father getting torn in half by the hell hounds or whatever they were. She was worried not only about her own children, but the goblin warrens ahead had a creche full of youngsters as well while most of the goblins were hunting for food.

Hurrying ahead, while Starrock hobbled back to her children, our heroes find the gates to the underground goblin warren open. Inside, there were torches, and a fairly large area acting as a foyer. Around the first bend they could smell the fetid odor a cesspit, and using a torch he grabbed off the wall, Elrod looks down. And sees several eyes looking up, glinting red in the torchlight. A battle against giant rats starts, and for a while no one hits anyone, but eventually the rats are vanquished, and despite one rat bite, no one caught some strange rat-born disease.

Moving fuether in, they see a carrion worm attacking a goblin. Friar Moon hurries up to slam the 9' work against the wall - the passage is narrow and only one person a can easily attack at a time. The goblin gets off a final shot, and escapes from the cul-de-sac he was trapped in. While Elrod fails more than once to boost Belle over Brother Moon, Kier starts shooting arrows. Eventually this beast is also slain, and they hurry on. 

The come into the town hall of the warrens and upon a battle scene: goblins are fighting hell hounds, and somewhere along the way a giant weasel got in and was heading to the nursery. Weasels are both opportunistic and like fresh goblin apparently (that, and I found that mini while looking for things to add to the dungeon, and since I had painted it, it showed up). 

Arrows, hammers and torches fly as the battle goes on. In a last try, Elrod's hoof got stepped on when trying to boost Belle again, Brother Moon managed to leap over one large hound and dart into goblin house, trying to draw the creature from the fight. They manage to kill the 3 hounds, but they just disappeared into grey smoke when killed. The last wolf was killed on the bridgeway to the nursery - that is when they saw the tail end of the giant weasel heading to the nursery. Next to them was a goblin shooting arrows, and blocking the entrance at the far end of the narrow passage was the nursemaid holding a small ax. Between Keir's arrows, the ax, and a successful magic spell from Elrod, the weasel was killed at the doorstep of the creche.

Pretty much where we ended the game. But what will happen is that Starrtock and her children get back along with the goblin hunters. There is both sadness and gratitude: while several goblins have been killed, more were saved and the youngsters were saved. I'll let the group decide it we want to roleplay the festivities - I see something like the Ewoks as there is a great cauldron of weasel stew, general celebrations, and perhaps some gifting for the heroes of the warren. And I need to name that goblin village: Geerk Underhill. 

There was also some discussion, and the goblins had never seen these hell hounds before. But they think that perhaps someone in the human town of Hendenburgh may know something of this as they roam the woods even more than the goblins do.

Elrod earned the name Weasel Blaster, Kiera Hound Shooter, Belle Hound Hammer, and Brother Moon Hound Hopper. Goblins have a strange sense of humor. 

I'll also note that the battle map is just a small area of the entire warren: there are caves and passages all over. But as those did not really factor into the session plan (and I only have so much space and so much plastic terrain!) that was the only part covered. 

battle picture with annotations. I added the nursery after I took the picture.

Dolmenwood Prep Part 2

Added a bit more to the map, and digging through my toys miniatures for various ideas. I've also annotated the map with what they will be finding, though I want to make it more immersive - I need to think of the smells, temperature, humidity and whatever sounds they hear. I am also adding baby goblins in a nursery creche that are under threat. The question is: why aren't the goblins doing their part: and I think there will be a lot of dead goblins scattered about maybe? or perhaps most were out on a hunting expedition. I've a few more days to figure that out.

Been taking a few pictures and even had AI adjust one a bit. Hopefully we'll have a good time. 

the hounds approach

oh rats!

annotated work in progress

after AI updated it

original picture

Dolmenwood Game Prep Again

Knowing I can really only prep on the weekend for a while until my brain catches up to my new job & I can adjust to that (give it a couple months but I will get there, I always do) I decided to bring out the toys. I'll also throwing in another OSE adventure I backed a while ago, and it fits into where the party is going. While one of the players has read through the adventure, it is more of a sandbox thing so there are a lot of ways to approach this. They have the Otter quest for the righting of the shrine, and because it was an Otter it is near the river that was pointed out by the Grimalkin Dandy Prisslwhiff, bard. But there are probably several sessions in that adventure, along with the shrine. 

Using the caves stuff, along with the goblin lair, I created a small dungeon. I won't post the reasons why they may go into this yet as they may read this post, but I have a few things I think will make them want 

to. I still need to populate it, though I have several ideas and things I want to test out. 

I'll probably gather the minis this week for what I need so that everything is in 1 place and easy to find. I am at least getting that organized! I even have a "box of minis I may need for this session" that also houses the character minis. It will get populated this week (twirls evil mustache). 

The AI version

original picture

I've also stopping running the Traveller game - with the new job it was just too much for me to handle. And I feel I was not doing a good job running the game. While it is my favorite RPG, I was apparently more stressed running it according to the players. Mostly because it is my favorite and I want people to have a good time, I worry more than other games I run. I was having fun but had too much going on to give it the attention it needs. Which is why I found an adventure for the Dolmenwood / OSE game that should give me a bit of structure and it is not all from my head.

I think part of it is mechanics. I am a huge fan of detailed mechanics. and Traveller (especially T5!) has some detailed mechanics for a lot of things. I have some interesting rules I wanted to try for the older OSE game I was running so the Druid could craft things. The players just don't want to do that sort of thing - too complicated and just wants GM fiat. More of a narrative style of play where the GM just does things is the approach this group uses the most. Which is good, but I like rule and things. Probably why I am a decent developer as that is all rules based. So that contrast between my preference for rules-based games vs narrative styled games is where some of my stress comes from as I need to relax how I want to run things to accommodate them. Which I've been doing (the NPCs handle all the details of ship stuff for the most part) but I feel that we're missing part of what makes Traveller my favorite game. Being my first RPG is also part of that!

Anyway, putting the Traveller game back on a shelf sadly, and will just run the monthly Dolmenwood game and be a player in the Tuesday night games for a few months at least, maybe longer.

Brain Dead

Not exactly, but starting a new job at a large international company is a LOT different than all the jobs I've had the last 40 years. I am used to pretty much jumping in and start figuring things out in the first couple of days. Now I have a month of training and onboarding. And to be honest, it is still very confusing to me. I almost quit after the 1st day - I could be quietly retired and not have to worry about this! 

Acclimating to a new job takes a heavy mental and emotional toll on me. And so my last gaming session we just yakked. I let everyone know ahead of time that I was overburdened with all the changes as well as being short 1 player, and by the end of that talk we had moved to let someone else lead a game for a while. I still have a few things I want to accomplish in the Kinunir game, so I do plan on getting back to it. But right now, after work I am just exhausted. And until I make that transition that is the state I am in. I do not make transitions easily!

But there is a bright side to this: I can now see how a very high law world that is full of rules would work! It reminds me a bit of the Exit Visa/Stranded on Arden adventure. Adventures in bureaucracy which does not appeal to a lot of players! Think the version in the magazine I have actually has a flow chart. 

Now for an idea of a better way to handle the same situation. 'As you leave the port warden's office, a clerk at the counter catches your eye." At this point, roil for his reaction to the crew. It's a 6, unreceptive, but he still looks like he might be able to help, Since the players don" know what skills might come into play, allow the entire group to approach, but single out one player in the crew to talk; he might not have the best skill level for the task, but he should have some appropriate skill level. In this case, either the Captain (character 1) or the Supervisor (character 6) should be told to talk to the clerk. 

"Ok, I'm trying to engage the man in conversation." says the Supervisor. 

"He'll talk, but seems brusque." Encourage the players to figure out the procedure themselves. "He seems kind of officious." 

"Maybe we could slip him some cash?" interjects the merchant 3rd Officer (he has bribery skill). 

"Do you want to try that?" Let the character make the decision while giving enough data to allow a reasonable response. One without bribery skill should be rebuffed, while one with skill might be told, "He's not acting friendly enough to be bribable at the moment." 

If necessary, push the players to ask the official if he can help. Note, if necessary, who does the asking, and use that player's skills to modify the die roll. Roll the dice secretly, but let the players know they are being rolled. The result is 5, with enough DMs to allow the clerk to give some help. The referee should say, "The clerk thinks maybe you should make an appointment to see the Customs Inspector in Building 134 tomorrow. He might be able to help." There is a basic scheme to the types of skills which will be useful to the players as they deal with the various officials. It may prove useful to mention to the players, as the adventure proceeds, some of the following facts, perhaps as each comes up. If they can remember these facts, they can better determine which of their number should deal with various types officials. 

A. Clerks are affected by Administration skill. 

B. Supervisors are affected by Liaison skill. 

C. Customs workers are affected by Liaison skill. 

D, Immigration workers are affected by Streetwise skill. 

E. Security workers are affected by Liaison skill. 

Early in the adventure, these details may not make any impression, but later on, the players may be able to understand that some of their number are better suited to some situations, even if they do not know all of the possible skills which could affect the encounter.

Anyway, mostly a filler post as my brain is full of trying to understand far too many new terms, meet too many new people, and get frustrated by bureaucracy!

June Bug is becoming my therapy cat!

Kinunir Session 5: Into the Dome

Our intrepid group of 4 was down to 2 last session for reasons. Deciding the 2 would stay in the research pinnace while Jake and Moses entered the dome.

Moses tried to communicate with Professor Plutonis and his lovely assistant, Yvonne. Who for some reason I just picture as the character from Star Trek: Voyager's Proton holodeck series:

Yvonne

Plutonis was glad to hear from his comms: while he and Yvonne had been imprisoned for the last 2 weeks or so, and he had lost weight due to the bland seafood diet, he was okay. But his Mightiness was still debating whether to flush them out the nearest waterlock, or see if he could extract information and technology from them. Plutonis said they were on the same level as the sub but was not sure how far away. From a technical note: the Oollarians did not recognize the comm-dots, and those things have an amazing battery life!

Sinking the pinnace to what seemed to be the level of the moonpool, Jake and Moses get into the gel suits and get loaded with 2 spare gel suits and their weapons. It was decided that being submerged would not hurt the gauss rifle and things that could get damaged were placed in the convenient dry bags that Professor Cosmosis had brought along. He of such foresight. The might of the infinite ship's locker perhaps. 

outside the moonpool. The sub is the escape pod.

Swimming across the 10 or 20 meters, they got into the moonpool. There was a ledge and ladder going up to the double sea doors. The sub mas amber and red lights and is badly damaged.  After changing back into their armor (though not specifically mentioned I think leaving the gel suits either on the shelf or in the sub?), they ease their way past the doors. Rolling on my tables from the previous post, there were a few Greenies way down at the end of hall. Fortunately, the 2 that saw them, while they were His Mightiness' guards and police, were part of a nascent freedom league. They closed the doors behind them, and one trotted towards our two suspicious heroes. Keeping his arms well away from his large (and single shot) sidearm, he whispers that the prisoners are 3 sections away, past two pumping stations. He has to whisper pretty loudly as this is one of the engineering levels, and the pumps make a lot of noise. The guard backs up, and Jake and Moses start moving through the various sections towards the prison area.

In the middle of one of the pumping stations, they meet Jason and Thriss. The two agree to lead the characters to the jail. Jake gives Thriss his taser. Who immediately pulls a Luke Skywalker and stares down into the needles. Jake quietly pulls it back and explains how it gets used. Moving to the prison section, which according to Plutonis has not been fully guarded the last week or so after the initial surprise of illegal aliens wore off. His Mightiness or one of his counselors was concerned with spreading information about the rest of the universe and wanted to minimize contact with the professor and his assistant. 

Opening the hatch to the prison section, Thriss tries to shoot the guard with the taser. Rolling a 3, and with his -3 for an unfamiliar weapon, they were lucky he did not shoot himself! Rolling out of the way as the guard got up, drawing his gun, Thriss did not feel like a hero. Moses shot him in the back with a tranq shot, putting the guard to sleep. Grabbing the keys, they sent up and found Plutonis and Yvonne in adjacent cells. Putting the sleeping guard in there, they started to retrace their steps back to the moonpool. 

Unfortunately, I keep rolling 3s on the encounter table, and the tangle with 5 more Greenies. As they were pulling out pistols to shoot, Moses decided enough was enough and the gauss rifle came out to play. While our group was shot at, the players are fortunate the dice gods hate me even as a referee, and not a single shot landed (one roll was even snake eyes). Moses took down two of them, and I think Jake did as well. Unfortunately, gauss needles, while making hamburger of the guards, also ruptured the pump tanks behind the guards. Water was gushing out like a fire hose. Jason started to worry as automatic locks would quarantine each section, so they had to hurry to the next section. They got out as the water was above their ankles and rising. 

Thriss really wanted to leave Oollar, and said that his life expectancy as a sea miner is measured in a few years. Jason's wife had been killed by the dictator in one of the purges. He wanted outsiders to help arm the resistance but had no idea what Oollar could trade for. This discussion went on as everyone got into their gel suits. Thriss got into his suit, fortunately stored in the locker next to the moonpool. Without an air hose he ony had a couple minutes of air, but Jake and Moses maneuvered him to the air lock of the research sub. 

Thriss' diving suit.

And that is where we left the session. I'll need to fluff out the various NPCs, Plutonis, Yvonne and Thriss, a bit more, and poke around for some images other than Yvonne's above. Still no idea why that is how or why that was the image I had of her. Oh well - my brain works in strange ways!

Work update

The computer equipment shows up tomorrow, and I need to finish cleaning off that section of my desk to get it set up. The paints and minis will just have to be moved to the 3rd section only instead of being spread out. And of course, I have my normal jitters and nervousness about a new position. I've been that way since junior high school: the strangest and most uncomfortable dreams so I don't sleep well. Especially as I am not entirely (or even partially!) sure of what the expectations of this position are. Despite 73 items so far in the onboarding (all bureaucracy stuff), the software onboarding (source control trouble tickets, wikis and all the stuff around being a developer on a team) is yet to happen. So - I am nervous. Even after doing this stuff for 40 years, I still question myself. Which I think is a lot better than when I was being an arrogant a-hole and thinking I knew everything!

But: this may mean I don't get as far as I'd like in this game. I do want to get them to the asteroid belt, so that the player who dropped out can at least have his character check his claim. Perhaps joined by the engineer, who knows. But I may get caught up with work for a bit and need to concentrate on that more. We'll just see how that goes.