Author: J.Bland

I am a Decider.

J.Bland
·

Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 39

Another fun session.

Two hours of roleplaying got the PCs back out on a mission.

I was very happy with this session. A number of good things happened. Before I get into specific great incidents of play, I want to say that all five players were doing smart things, interacting with the setting, asking the right questions, seeking out NPCs to talk to without my prompting, etc.

Since they were likely heading back to the planet Uetonah I had suggested they re-read the previous sessions on that planet, but David went beyond that. When his character, Flint, said he was going to seek out their newest frenemy, Alro Rupalian, and ask for help keeping an eye on the ship, I was delighted! I love seeing a player taking advantage of existing relationships with NPCs. That is just really good playing that is totally unrelated to character stats, yet it’s a powerful resource. Super, super good. It’s the kind of thing that is really only possible in long-form campaigns where an in-game history really develops.

In all the years of this campaign, and all my previous years of playing Traveller, I have never once use the rules for trading. Adding a bureaucrat to the mix of PCs has opened up a lot of possibilities in the game. I was reading the rules for trade and commerce and saw that the Admin skill can be used as a positive modifier when selling good. Well, Caliban has Admin-4, so that is a huge modifier on a 2d6 roll.  I also like that he used his Recruit-1 skill not exactly to recruit dock workers into employment, but to sort of recruit them as allies. I always talk about how Traveller skills should be thought of as “big”. This was a great use of that skill.

Fardt, the alien Gluck NPC, has Streetwise-1. In the past he has used that skill to the party’s advantage, but in pretty obvious ways. “Locate a sketchy hacker to do some work for us? Sure.” Fardt was out with William’s character, Barney (the engineer). Barney suggested that Fardt go eavesdrop on the Samson mining recruiters. So that was a good use of the skill. Then Barney asked him to use his Streetwise to start a rumor in the city that the Samson guys were not being honest – that the mission they are recruiting for is certain death! I let William make the roll for Fardt. He made it. I decided on the fly that this brilliant and creative idea should bear fruit, so I had him roll 1d6 to find out what how long the Samson guys would be delayed due to the rumor creation. He rolled a 4. So that simple action set the Samson buys back four weeks, giving the PCs a massive lead on them. Awesome stuff.

The examples above, I think, demonstrate why Classic Traveller is simply a great system. It gives you just enough rules to make it work, but gives the Ref lots of room to work. It is flexible.

As usual, I used a flexible round-robin method of running the game. I make a list of the players, and I simply go through the list, in order, asking each player what they are doing. We can break out of it whenever we need, but I always go back to the round-robin to make sure each player is getting a chance to do stuff.

I’m finding that as each player does something inventive and fun it is spurring that same kind of play from the others. They are feeding off each other’s play in a way that’s improving everyone’s game.

I have to admit that this kind of game is a little harder to run than simpler stuff. And simple can be a hell of a lot of fun, but this is just really satisfying.

For the record, what is “going on” is really quite simple, but will take some time to sort out. It could involve action and fighting, but I can think of other ways to move forward. I have created a lot of the NPCs they may deal with, rough descriptions of places, and thought about possibilities, but the players will almost certain do something I’ve not thought of. I hope the players are having fun. They keep coming back.

I’ve been thinking a lot about a more “defined” way of letting them improve the characters through experience, but now I’m questioning if it is even necessary. I don’t think it will improve the game at all.

J.Bland
·

ITV Session 39: Return to Uetonah

IY6026.328

The members of SAFCO spend some time doing various things as they wait for parts for the Rambler-II. Barney and Fardt have done all they can without the expensive drive components, and they have at least five weeks until the parts arrive.

They meet at the Happy Gluck that evening to discuss next moves. Barney has been interested in the Pachyderms of Uetonah for a while. As a former bureaucrat working in the diplomatic corps on the border of the Kresk Directorate, Caliban has some knowledge of such issues, and knows that the Imperial Office of Sophont Relations has at least a sub-office on each Subsector capital. Mylor’s subsector, of course, is not fully explored and the imperial presence is undeveloped. The nearest office would be the Prometheus subsector office, on planet Prometheus, one subsector rimward.

They see a man going from table to table chatting people up. He’s wearing a green velvet jack, black pants, and black boots. He’s about 5′ tall, heavy set, with gray goate. He approaches the table. Caliban notes that he’s wearing an antique wrist watch.

The man introduces himself as Silvonius Janks – Interstellar Commodities Trader. He has just landed his Far Trader, the Fortunate Son, and is in need of a crew. He tells him that his pilot, navigator, and engineer have been hired away by some guys doing recruiting.

He explains that he has a load of 1)polymer components he thinks he can sell on Overon, and that 2)he has crates of military fatigues made of cloth armor fabric he’s heard he might sell to Samson Mining, on Uetonah.

He offers the Scouts all standard crew contracts based on their skill levels, and offers Flint a position as Gunner for one of the craft’s two turrets. Lucky gets a bonus for serving not only as navigator but as gunner. Caliban negotiates a contract to represent Janks in upcoming business transactions, for a 5% commission on net sales.  They find out that his previous crew lacked a steward, so Fardt is able to take that position, insuring that they’ll not be eating rations of garblag haggis for the next few week. Janks informs them that he want to leave for Uetonah in two morning.

SAFCO spends day doing the following…

Barney and Fardt go out to purchase supplies. They see see the recruiters from Samson Mining working a booth in the market. Barney has Fardt go use his streetwise smarts (Streetwise-1) to approach the booth and listen, acting like he want to join up. They don’t take Fardt seriously, but he makes his Streetwise roll and overhears them telling the possible recruits that rebel kooks on Uetonah have come close to shutting down mining operations. He then instructs Fardt to talk to his underworld contacts and start a rumor that Samson is signing people up for a death mission — to a planet where everything will kill and eat you. Guaranteed death. Fardt again rolls and makes Streetwise check. Rolling 1d6, we determine that recruiting efforts will be delayed by four weeks.

Flint and Roger visit Alro Rupalian who agrees to have 2 goons guard the Rambler-II while they are gone, simply out of goodwill.

Caliban makes friends with doc workers – they will help watch the ship. Finds out they are union. They will send him the name of union leader for future representation for contracts. He gives them some drink vouchers to the Happy Gluck.

Janks takes onboard one more lot of product – spices – to sell on spec.

SAFCO boards the Fortunate Son and heads for Overon, 2 parsecs away. One week in Jump Space.

Caliban assists in selling the polymers there for a nice profit. He sells the spices as well, also for a good profit. Flint visits the head of RCMP on the plant, Robert Tilton. He tells him about a possible post-scrubbing claim on Chamax, should there be anything good there.

There are no available cargo lots that Janks can currently afford.

They jump to Uetonah, and are boarded for inspection by a system defense boat. It is clear to Roger that the FS would be no match for it in a fight, and says “we’d better play nice.” They are allowed to land at the Samson spaceport.

Caliban trades the cloth armor fatigues for 200% of their original cost ($100,000 total). Sadly there is no cargo to ship out at this point. Perhaps when they are ready to leave.

They talk around the spaceport and city. Flint and Roger in the city – lots more posters now than on their previous visit. Barney chats up a dock worker, finding out that rebels have mostly shut down mining operations, but that will soon be fixed. Samson has brought in military weapons, and will soon have a private army to wield them. They will wipe out the environmentalist kooks. Lucky explores the city, and sees more pro-rebel graffiti and flyers around. “Free the Pachyderms” and “All Sophont Lives Matter”. Caliban does a casual, informal intelligence test on a pachyderm, and gets confusing results.

Man in spaceport bumps into Barney, and whispers to him to meet him at Irma’s Imported Mooch Imporium at 7pm.

End of session
IY6026.344
Elapsed time: 452 game days (1 year, 78 days)

J.Bland
·

Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 38

The last couple of sessions have been post-Big-Adventure/Setup sessions. Giving the players a chance to do some housekeeping, pursue some loose ends, and fiddle around a bit in-character.

After opening up the Mongoose 2e Central Supply Catalog to the players, I have already “but the brakes on it” a bit. A lot of the stuff in the book is fine to add to Classic Traveller. Survival gear, tools, etc. All good. The weapons and armor? Not so much. For one thing, Mongoose uses a totally different system for to-hit and damage. The weapons assume this. One of the players discovered the section on buying finely made weapons that do higher minimum amounts of damage, give bonuses to hit, etc.  Initially I said fine, but after talking about it we decided against it. I do think having really nice weapons be a little better than a stock weapon is fine in CT, but I will have to come up with some suitable rules for it.

I feel like Mongoose 2e potentially really opens the floodgates for powerful weapons. Also, since Classic Traveller is nearly 50 years old, it is of course true that even the ideas involved in science fiction are a lot different now.

The guys found the Universal Translator program in the catalog. In my game, it was a big deal when the PCs found an alien artifact that functioned as a universal translator. Clearly, based on that, a UT would be at a very high tech level in my universe — beyond what the PCs have access to. So we backed that out too.

The Mongoose stuff is very cool. It is just not what our campaign is about. For the most part I want the PCs to stick to the Classic Traveller weapons and armor. I’ll just use the Mongoose stuff to embellish the game.

A couple of my players, running Caliban and Flint, have offered up some ideas that are helping make the setting seem a bit more fully realized. Very happy about that. I love it when players think about the game and their characters. Both are super cool about it — offering the ideas up but totally good if I change them a bit or say “no, that’s a bit too much collaboration.” But it is a big universe, and one Ref can’t possibly think of everything.

Back when they were dealing with the bugs on Chamax, Barney displayed evidence of arachnophobia. His player just came up with that, based on the many disgusting bug monsters they have encountered. It makes sense, and it’s cool. The character gets no points for it. There is no advantage. It’s just fun and good roleplaying. I liked it.

But yeah, I am threading the needle with regard to available tech and whatnot. So far we’ve had a good campaign without going hog wild about new tech, but I’d like them to have cool stuff available and to take the initiative. I liked it when they wanted a drone, so they built one. That was cool. We figured it out.

I have created character record sheets for each of the PCs grav bikes in Roll20. I’d love it if they each customize the bikes with software and whatever they want. Where you get into trouble is at higher tech levels onboard computers can be intelligent agents. Not sure about that. Not sure I like it. Probably won’t go there. But improving the control systems on the bikes, installing databases — that is all good.

I decide we’ll use the Cepheus Engine Vehicle Design Guide for vehicle design details and the very simple systems it contains for low-speed fights, dogfights, and chases. It seems to be very compatible with Classic Traveller, and I like the aesthetics of the vehicles.

J.Bland
·

ITV Session 38: Gun Shopping

IY6026.328

Two weeks have passed. SAFCO is still waiting for word on the parts they need for the Rambler-II.

PC’s discuss what to do with info on Dr. Fawke.

Caliban transmits some message to the Scout Service, complimenting the Scouts he was a bit of a dick to in the last session, realizing he was in a different culture and he misread it. Well done.

PC’s take alien data disks to Tahm Slykk, who agrees to build them a device that will read them. They pay him 10,000cr as his 10% share of their earnings from the trip to Chamax. He’s going to buy a new molecular analyzer for his workshop.

PC’s go gun shopping. Lucky talks to a gunsmith about buying a higher quality autorifle. He puts down some money on a new one. (Note: we had talked about using the finely made weapons rules from Mongoose Traveller, but I have decided not to. I’ll come up with some advantage for the new gun that will not unbalance the game).

Barney and Fardt work on Rambler. See Sub Merch in port. Barney talks to Sam, one of the mechanics. Finds out that the ship came in with no cargo. Barney notices the Samson Mining logo on the ship. Samson is the company doing mining on Uetonah, and possibly exploiting the native Pachyderms.

PC’s to the Happy Gluck, meet Flint’s old comrade Capt. Lex from the RCMP Army, who the find out is working for Samson. Barney on lookout. Lex introduces them to the pilot, navigator, and engineer from that ship, and tells them he is there to recruit soldiers to wipe out the rebels from the Sophont Liberation Front who have become an increasing problem for Samson. He refers to them as “environmentalist kooks”.  Lex offers SAFCO the chance to join up and make some money, but they decline. Lex and his crew leave. Barney rejoins the rest of SAFCO at their table and they compare notes.

End of session
IY6026.328
Elapsed time: 436 game days (1 year, 62 days)

J.Bland
·

Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 37

I keep saying this with every new session, but I am really amazed we just finished Session 37. My D&D game is on session 36 in just over a year. Both of these campaigns are now much longer both in real time and in game sessions than anything I’ve done before.

I’ve been talking to people about the benefits of long-form campaigns, as well as listening to some podcasts about it. I am not averse to a good one-shot game. They can be super fun. But the stuff we’re doing in these two long-form campaigns with no defined end points is just so fun and so great, and really couldn’t happen in a shorter format.

Session 37 was perhaps the closest to a no-roll roleplaying session I’ve run. Most of the two hours was spent with the characters in conversation with each other or interacting with NPCs. Other than a few Gunnery rolls practicing with the laser turrets on the ship and two Admin rolls, it was all talk and roleplaying. I feel like the players are getting better at the in-character roleplaying part of the game. No, they aren’t acting like voice actors or entertainers. They are just playing their characters. Maybe I’m affording them more opportunities for this? I’m not sure, but it was fun.

This was still a very busy 2-hour session. I had considered throwing some action into it, or working in the start of a new adventure, but decided not to rush it. Everyone seemed engaged, so I decided to take my time and let things play out. The game will be better for it.

J.Bland
·

ITV Session 37: Sharp Dressed Man

Still IY6026.306

SAFCO and Caliban Tisk have made it back to the Rambler-II. A few of the alien bug fur balls were blown out into space. Everyone is feeling the need for some revenge on the ugly bastards, so the team takes turns locating the 4 fur balls on the turret scanners and frying them with the ship’s lasers. Even Caliban takes a turn, and his Jack-of-all-trades skill comes in handy. He fries one!

After a brief discussion, SAFCO decides it is time to return to Mylor. Not a hard decision, really. Barney informs the team that the ship is overdue for annual maintenance. As a miracle-worker he’s kept them safe, but it is getting too sketchy. Among other things, the ship needs a new Jump Drive B modulator as well as a replacement for the Jump Field Control Matrix. This will likely have to be brought in from a Type-A starport a subsector away. They are looking at 7 weeks downtime and about $400,000 credits. Luckily the company has enough in the bank to cover it. A course is set and they jump, managing to avoid a mis-jump.

During jump they discuss plans going forward.

Caliban prepares insurance claim documents for SAFCO, as well as forms to reinstate life insurance on each member (owed them by the Scouts). He also files on Lucky’s behalf for compensation from the Scout Service for the disfigurement and trauma he underwent during his service (this one will be had to justify. Being a Scout is inherently dangerous!). Caliban also prepares instructions for his tailor on Mylor for a new suit, as well as instructions for fabriation of new field clothing and dress duds for SAFCO. He also prepare the proper forms, to be submitted to the Scout base on Mylor, suggesting that Chamax be immediately quaranteened. Caliban make a couple of Admin-4 rolls to start the process on a couple of these projects.

SAFCO and Caliban prepare a suggested plan for dealing with any other Chamax colony ships that might float into an inhabited parsec.

The Rambler-II arrives back on Mylor. The various claim transmissions are made.

The entire group heads to the Scout base once Caliban has picked up and donned his sweet new suit. He’ll be taken seriously wearing this!  Walking in, the Scouts and Flint see some familiar faces. Caliban tries to take charge, barking orders at a scout. The man asks Lucky “Hey who is this guy”. After a response from Caliban, the scout says “You should settle down, Slick.” Barney smooths things over, and they meet with Scout Admin Billy Zoom.

After showing Zoom their footage and documentation of their harrowing experience on Chamax as well as in the alien ship, and the survey data, he agrees that quarantine will likely be instituted (if not a planetary scrubbing), and he will tranmit data to the Quarantine Agency. In the meantime the Scout base on nearby Zerix will put in provisional interdiction satellites at Chamax. He thanks them and they leave.

Roger and Fardt go relax at the Happy Gluck.

Next they visit InStarSpec, to meet with Sevor Halin. Caliban has a plan. Barney is wearing a nice new uniform, while Lucky remains “badass” looking. While he initially scoffs at request for payment to the team for completing the survey (Caliban has the original contract, stating whoever completes it gets paid), he eventually decides it’s not his money after all and pays them the 100,000 cr specified in the contract, as well as the 100,000 cr he owes SAFCO for their work sorting out the situation. They show him the footage. He offers them a contract to go back and capture one of the Chamax bugs, saying such a life form must be valuable. They decline.

Caliban’s tablet pings, indicating payment received.

A vote is taken, and SAFCO agrees to accept Caliban into the company. He brings a useful skillset that none of the others possess.

SAFCO goes over its financials and other resources. They decide to take the data disks recovered from the Chamax ship to their hacker associate, Tahm Slykk, to have them copied.  Lucky begins compiling a list of useful gear they might want to procure for their future endeavors.

End of session
IY6026.314
Elapsed time: 422 game days (1 year, 62 days)

J.Bland
·

Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 36

So, we have finished the Chamax Sessions in our Classic Traveller campaign. I used the Double Adventure /the Chamax Plague/Horde as source material, and the group actually discovered the Chamax origin planet and dealt with bugs on the surface and an alien escape ship in orbit around the planet.

This adventure actually took seven play sessions to do. Most of them were 2-hour sessions, so that is understandable.

I made a real effort to have potential skill use in this adventure beyond just bug killing. In particular, allowing PCs to add their Jack of All Trades modifier to rolls when I felt it appropriate. For example, when their background would indicate some kind of intuition in the area. As I have gone on and on about in person and online for years, most Traveller skills are BIG. They often encompass multiple implied sub-skills or entire professions. Players need to be able to use them. I’m doing what I can as Ref to nudge the players into thinking bigger with regard to their skills.

We are taking next week off, which will give me a breather and time to work on the next steps of the campaign. I want to do a better job describing things to increase “immersion” and I want to find some good non-AI imagery on the web to use during the sessions.

The players discussed a couple of items of unfinished business at the end of last night’s session, so we may go those directions depending on what they decide.

I love this campaign.

J.Bland
·

ITV Session 36: Chamax Understood

Still IY6026.306

SAFCO is still in the alien disk ship, on the Computer deck. They investigate the equipment. The storage media they found appear to be eight optical disks, each 8 inches in diameter and about 1/4″ thick. Each is a different color, and each has writing. Lucky examines them using his Electronics-3 skill. The disks and the associate equipment, like the rest of the ship, appear to be of a lower tech level than even low Imperial standard. The team looks over the deck. They see nothing that appears to be ship controls.

Lucky asks Caliban, who has experience with first encounters with alien races, to look at the optical disks. Caliban, who is also knowledgeable about document filing systems and such, needs and 11+ to make sense of the alien system. He is allowed to use the following modifiers. Admin-4, Liason-1, JOT-1. He succeeds with the roll.

Caliban assumes that if there is an order to the disks, it likely starts with either the left or right side. Few aliens would start in the middle or have some other odd way of doing things. He looks over the writing on the disks, and decides that the disks, if there is an order to them, go right to left in their holder. Lucky notes that it would be easy to remove the container and take the disks.

Another bug comes up the ramp to the computer deck. A fight ensues. Damn! These bugs are tough! The team peppers the thing with bullets as it chaotically attacks! The bug misses its attempts to bite team members. Caliban detaches his radio, turns it to what he thinks is a bug frequency, and throws it down the hall, trying to get the bug to chase it. The bug still continues attacking. Finally, Roger gets a good shot and pops the things acid sack, killing it. Caliban retrieves his radio.

The team decides to decend the ramp to the Engineering deck. They have no bug encounters on the way.

On the Engineering deck they see lots of low tech equipment, as well as a strange bank of devices that give the impression of being something like temperature controls.

Caliban uses his tablet to broadcast what they are seeing to Barney on the Rambler-II, who is Eng-3. Barney sees a small fusion reactor. He sees no evidence of a Jump drive. He estimates this ship could do no more than .6% lightspeed. It would take over 400 years to cover one parsec. He thinks the weird equipment looks
like some kind of temperature device.

Together the team thinks this ship is totally automated — a hibernation ship. No controls. No food prep. No facilities. Only the computer deck seems to have work stations or any expectation of interaction with a sophont.

They decide to return to the Rambler-II. Lucky and Caliban return to the computer deck to get the disks, while Flint and Roger stabilize the tumbling disk ship and see about bringing over a fresh vacc suit for Lucky.

On the computer deck, Lucky loads disk one, succeeds in a Comp-1 roll, and views an explanatory video, showing that the bugs originated on this planet, Chamax, as did the crustacean aliens. The bugs natural predator was intentionally eliminated and the bugs went wild, eating all organic matter on land. The aliens built disk ships and sent them out at sublight speed to try to colonize other worlds. This ship, apparently, was invaded by bugs as it lifted off. They ate the colonists, damaged internal systems, and the ship failed to leave orbit. They see a short depiction of the bug life cycle.

Back on board the Rambler-II, SAFCO and Caliban begin discussions of next steps, realizing the danger of the bugs should they invade other worlds.

End of session
IY6026.306
Elapsed time: 414 game days

J.Bland
·

Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 35

When we started this series of Chamax games I had no idea we’d now be 6 sessions into them and still going strong.

If you are familiar with the Classic Traveller Double adventures Horde and the Chamax Plague, you know I am using them as source material, but his is it’s own adventure cobbled together with elements of that book.

It’s going well. The frequent 2-hour play sessions are working out nicely.

I love Traveller.

J.Bland
·

ITV Session 35: More Bugs

Still IY6026.306

SAFCO and Caliban Tisk continue exploring the alien disk ship.

They have patched Lucky’s vacc suit with a quick-patch, but there is still a large hole being burned into it, quickly, by the bug’s acid.

Roger uses his blade to cut out the section of vacc suit affected — about an 8″ diameter spot. Lucky’s suit takes another 11 points of damage before he can get it cut out. It requires two quick patches and an 8+ roll by Caliban (aided by Jack of All Trades-1) to get the two patches to work correctly. The discarded fabric burns away, leaving a burned mark on the metal floor of the ship.

The team decides to try to find the central column of the ship, as shown in the video they were shown, to ascend to what looked like a bridge/computer room. They proceed, with Flint taking the point. As he moves through the halls another bug attacks him. He and Roger fight it. Simultaneously another bug attacks Caliban and Lucky. They manage to kill both bugs.

They reach the central column, and find a spiral ramp leading up and down, as well as a hatch into what turns out to be a column going through the vehicle, with a weird non-human ladder and lots of wires and conduits. They go up the ramp, and are attacked by another bug.

This bug gives them a lot of trouble. It bites Lucky and Roger, but Flint is able to pry it off both of them before it spits acid. Both of them get their vacc suits damaged again, and there is only one quick patch left. They shoot it many times, but fail to hit the acid sac and kill it. The ships power again fluctuates. Gravity goes away. Flint has left the hatch in that level’s central column open. Caliban situates himself to quickly slam the hatch shut. Flint uses his Zero-G combat skill to go flying at the bug, which is now flopping around wildly in the air. He has a crowbar with him. He makes a DX roll, and is able to hit the bug like a ball into the hatch, which Caliban slams shut and locks.

WHEW!

Now they have two damaged vacc suits and only one patch. The atmosphere in the ship is like that of the planet, however, which means it is breathable, and it is above freezing.

They continue up, and find what appears to be a “computer room.” Alien tech devices and monitors, etc. Ships power fluctuates again and the gravity comes back, but the lights to out. They are once again using their suits’ helmet lamps. Lucky makes an electronics roll and recognizes what appears to be data disks in a storage compartment. He considers taking the entire storage container, but the group decides that Barney is need on-board, since he has computer skill and may be able to figure out how to read them.

The session ends as the team discusses how to proceed. They need Barney and a spare vacc suit, and the alien ship is still tumbling with the SAFCO mining pod still attached.

End of Session:
Still IY6026.306
Elapsed time: 413 game days