Category: Traveller

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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.

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ITV Session 37: Sharp Dressed Man

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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
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Elapsed time: 422 game days (1 year, 62 days)

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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.

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ITV Session 36: Chamax Understood

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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
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Elapsed time: 414 game days

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ITV Session 35: More Bugs

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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:
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Elapsed time: 413 game days

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Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 34

This adventure is taking way more session than I expected! That’s fine. We’re only playing for two hours at a time, and we usually spend about 10 minutes catching up before we play. I’m enjoying these sessions a lot, and I hope the players are too. It is great to not feel like we are rushing through an adventure “just to get it done.”

One challenge I had in last night’s session was keeping the one character who stayed on the ship (to make sure someone was there at the ready) engaged. William is a great player. He often is the one who goes up to the balcony to keep an eye on things, lags behind to make sure no one is following them, etc. Sometimes, as in these last few sessions, it means his character, Barney, isn’t  in the middle of the action.

However, over the last seven years of playing Traveller he understands how to keep his character busy, and find productive things to do, in this case supporting the away team. I can’t believe we’ve been playing this campaign for over seven years now, but we have, and all the guys are seasoned Traveller players. Well, Todd is new, but he’s an experienced gamer and it’s like he’s been with us the whole time.

I had a good time with last night’s session. I made a random table to determine how the alien ship they are on might malfunction. Gravity going in and out, information videos suddenly playing, lights on and off, maneuvering/attitude thrusters suddenly firing. It was also fun to have the PCs in vac suits – an added level of danger, as well as some zero-g antics.

When I review my own performance as Ref after these games, I continue to be dissatisfied with the descriptions I give of things. Like the interior of the ship. I feel like I’m paying a lot of attention to the big things in a session, but could spend more time thinking of atmospheric details. I will work on that.

Going on vacation for a week. More Traveller after that.