BruceEdwinMorrow
SOC-11
Hmmm... Tasty... Repossess a mercenary cruisier in the middle of a war... I like it.
I think we're going to need more Gauss Rifles over here..... And a large order of body bags....
Best way to give my players a ship
- Thread starter BruceEdwinMorrow
- Start date
Hmmm... Tasty... Repossess a mercenary cruisier in the middle of a war... I like it.
I think we're going to need more Gauss Rifles over here..... And a large order of body bags....
Captain Midnight
SOC-12
What perils will our heroes face this week?
They're the star performers in a new "reality show".
The network can provide them with the ship and assign camera crews to monitor their performance on various missions as they are assigned by the producers of the show. Maybe they'll be assigned to do something that they have no idea how to accomplish... which would make for some great TV, wouldn't it?
If they successfully complete the assigned missions through the course of the season, they get rewarded with the ship and some money to get them started. If they don't... well, who keeps up with former participants from reality shows?
It'd be a cross between "Survivor", "The Amazing Race", and "The Running Man". A sure winner in the ratings!
I've got an even better idea, that will also cover the usual motley assortment of skills and backgrounds found in your typical gaming group.
They're the star performers in a new "reality show".
The network can provide them with the ship and assign camera crews to monitor their performance on various missions as they are assigned by the producers of the show. Maybe they'll be assigned to do something that they have no idea how to accomplish... which would make for some great TV, wouldn't it?
If they successfully complete the assigned missions through the course of the season, they get rewarded with the ship and some money to get them started. If they don't... well, who keeps up with former participants from reality shows?
It'd be a cross between "Survivor", "The Amazing Race", and "The Running Man". A sure winner in the ratings!
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
Older ships with interesting histories become characters in their own right.
In one campaign, our "loaned Q-ship" flying "Covert and disownable" team smoked a pirate, stuffed the ship in a safe spot, and finished their original mission. Several months later, that last mission having failed at the "covert" goal, they returned to the Corsair to take possession to allow a ship change. It had been a Vargr-operated ship when they beat it, and being neglected immediately after the fight meant the whole ship smelled like a neglected doghouse...
In another game, our OENE (Obligatory Ex-Navy Engineer) stated an interest in getting a ship "to fix up". He entered play living in the thing and slowly trying to get it space-worthy, as he'd "won" it in a card game in which he was fairly certain the guy who put the ship's papers on the table was cheating to lose. A century-old Sulie that had been converted to a Seeker and mostly back again, the "Crustless Pumpkin" was internally air-tight, but the outer hull was a complete mess, control was shot, the drives were all past cert by *years*, and there was enough frame sag that some doors would only open when it as grounded, while others would only work in flight. An engineering and repair robot who was purchased to assist the work screamed the first time it was plugged into the diagnostic circuitry, and even after it was (barely) flyable, the drydock crews at our regular port had a running pool on whether they would ever see the ship again.
Another option is not to give them one ship, but work for a party that will either always give them a ride or loan them something for a single mission. Different ship each time, sometimes just passengers. They'll be hungry for a ship of their own, and maybe the right salvage op will provide one if their patron lets them keep it.
In one campaign, our "loaned Q-ship" flying "Covert and disownable" team smoked a pirate, stuffed the ship in a safe spot, and finished their original mission. Several months later, that last mission having failed at the "covert" goal, they returned to the Corsair to take possession to allow a ship change. It had been a Vargr-operated ship when they beat it, and being neglected immediately after the fight meant the whole ship smelled like a neglected doghouse...
In another game, our OENE (Obligatory Ex-Navy Engineer) stated an interest in getting a ship "to fix up". He entered play living in the thing and slowly trying to get it space-worthy, as he'd "won" it in a card game in which he was fairly certain the guy who put the ship's papers on the table was cheating to lose. A century-old Sulie that had been converted to a Seeker and mostly back again, the "Crustless Pumpkin" was internally air-tight, but the outer hull was a complete mess, control was shot, the drives were all past cert by *years*, and there was enough frame sag that some doors would only open when it as grounded, while others would only work in flight. An engineering and repair robot who was purchased to assist the work screamed the first time it was plugged into the diagnostic circuitry, and even after it was (barely) flyable, the drydock crews at our regular port had a running pool on whether they would ever see the ship again.
Another option is not to give them one ship, but work for a party that will either always give them a ride or loan them something for a single mission. Different ship each time, sometimes just passengers. They'll be hungry for a ship of their own, and maybe the right salvage op will provide one if their patron lets them keep it.
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
Sure you won't... the local Nobles are convinced by whatever story the "in-default" owners made up (for reasons you make up), and orders the PCs arrested and put on trial.
Can the PCs evade capture in the repossessed ship?
If captured, can confirmation of your documentation arrive from the Sector Capitol before you are sentenced and executed?
If not, can the PCs escape from prison?
Can the PCs then track down the bad guys (who have skipped the system with the ship during the trial)?
What I am going to do to my players is have them working as crew/traders on a ship the owner/s get 25% of trade profits earned and they (the PC's) pay for everything eles:devil:, but if they live to find it they can end up with a really nice ship, of course the ONLY thing on it are the drives:smirk:
You could also have been told about the lost ship by a senile old guy who forgets that he tells someone the secret every week. You show up and there's thirty ships looking for it.
For the reality show, how often would you red-shirt the camera crew? Having them there to soak up the damage sounds like a great idea.
For the reality show, how often would you red-shirt the camera crew? Having them there to soak up the damage sounds like a great idea.
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
Why thank you. 
That's one of the nicest things anyone has said to me. :smirk:
Seriously, I would make it moderately easy for the PCs to get away (one way or another), but with a lot of stress, worry, and gnashing of teeth along the way.
Eventual success would be probable, but not easy.
That's one of the nicest things anyone has said to me. :smirk:
Seriously, I would make it moderately easy for the PCs to get away (one way or another), but with a lot of stress, worry, and gnashing of teeth along the way.
Eventual success would be probable, but not easy.
Why thank you.
That's one of the nicest things anyone has said to me. :smirk:
:rofl:
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There are umpteen ways to give players a ship.
Salvage a war derelict. Gee, if it was lost in a war or border skirmish, could it still have classified data/material on board?
Make friends with some abused droyne and help them escape persecution from solomanis, and in return they hand build you a ship. Given droyne economics this is plausible.
The privateer method works if, for example, you steal a vargr or solomani ship and operate it in imperial space. The imps may regard the ship as the property of the players if they seaize it from hostile forces.
An adventure module for "Spacemaster" first edition had the players sent on a mission to steal an advanced warship from one polity by another. In that game the players were NOT to be allowed to keep the ship, but that could be changed.
Rescuing a rich hostage could get the players given a ship as a gratuity. Now, if the players can only arrange to get a rich person or their relative in a situation where they needed rescuing and then pull it off while maintaining an appearance of heroism and innocence...
As a last resort, they rebuild one at a colony that, in it's early days, was so hard up it used scrapped ships as buildings and homes. Now that things are better they colony has abandoned the old, ugly, ramshackle settlement and moved to nicer homes, leaving those hulls just sitting there...
As an addition to this, once they get the ship they have to get it flying. For ideas on that, look up a webcomic called "Freefall" to see how it's captain, Sam Starfall, got his ship, the "Savage Chicken" flight worthy without using stolen parade balloons.
Salvage a war derelict. Gee, if it was lost in a war or border skirmish, could it still have classified data/material on board?
Make friends with some abused droyne and help them escape persecution from solomanis, and in return they hand build you a ship. Given droyne economics this is plausible.
The privateer method works if, for example, you steal a vargr or solomani ship and operate it in imperial space. The imps may regard the ship as the property of the players if they seaize it from hostile forces.
An adventure module for "Spacemaster" first edition had the players sent on a mission to steal an advanced warship from one polity by another. In that game the players were NOT to be allowed to keep the ship, but that could be changed.
Rescuing a rich hostage could get the players given a ship as a gratuity. Now, if the players can only arrange to get a rich person or their relative in a situation where they needed rescuing and then pull it off while maintaining an appearance of heroism and innocence...
As a last resort, they rebuild one at a colony that, in it's early days, was so hard up it used scrapped ships as buildings and homes. Now that things are better they colony has abandoned the old, ugly, ramshackle settlement and moved to nicer homes, leaving those hulls just sitting there...
As an addition to this, once they get the ship they have to get it flying. For ideas on that, look up a webcomic called "Freefall" to see how it's captain, Sam Starfall, got his ship, the "Savage Chicken" flight worthy without using stolen parade balloons.
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BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
Actually, atpollard, I got that by thinking as I would if I was one of the PCs...
Immediately upon reading the mission brief, the question popped into my head "Why will they still be there when we get there?"
Think about it: In order for us (your PCs) to find them at the reported location (which the bank and "our Noble" seem convinced we will), they will have to have stayed in virtually the same place long enough for:
1. the bank to send out queries when the ship's loan defaults (response time to learn it has not been reported lost or siezed);
2. the bank's agents to track them down (travel and response time);
3. the bank to decide not to go after them through normal repossession channels*;
4. the bank to have looked around long enough to find someone ("our Noble") willing to take the problem off their hands;
5. us to travel to wherever the ship (and the defaulting owners) are.
That is a long time, now isn't it?
Why would they still be there?
Are they stupid... or do they feel safe there?
Why do they feel safe?
Do they expect the local authorities to protect them?
If so, what problems could that cause us**?
* Did the bank decide it would be too risky and/or too difficult/costly to reposses it through normal channels?
**If the normal repo guys find it too difficult/hazardous, what does that mean for us?
See... it all comes from being properly paranoid... that's all.
Immediately upon reading the mission brief, the question popped into my head "Why will they still be there when we get there?"
Think about it: In order for us (your PCs) to find them at the reported location (which the bank and "our Noble" seem convinced we will), they will have to have stayed in virtually the same place long enough for:
1. the bank to send out queries when the ship's loan defaults (response time to learn it has not been reported lost or siezed);
2. the bank's agents to track them down (travel and response time);
3. the bank to decide not to go after them through normal repossession channels*;
4. the bank to have looked around long enough to find someone ("our Noble") willing to take the problem off their hands;
5. us to travel to wherever the ship (and the defaulting owners) are.
That is a long time, now isn't it?
Why would they still be there?
Are they stupid... or do they feel safe there?
Why do they feel safe?
Do they expect the local authorities to protect them?
If so, what problems could that cause us**?
* Did the bank decide it would be too risky and/or too difficult/costly to reposses it through normal channels?
**If the normal repo guys find it too difficult/hazardous, what does that mean for us?
See... it all comes from being properly paranoid... that's all.
Some thoughts
Hi,
Many years ago, in real life, I did an internship type couple of months onboard a small tanker off the US west coast. According to the crew the ship had been bought by their company a year or two earlier to replace a ship that their company had lost in a grounding. Anyway, according to the crew, this replacement ship (which was about 30yrs old at the time) had been sitting idle somewhere for a few years and was bought by their company for scrap yard prices but was in good enough shape to bring back into service to replace their loss. As such, it may be possible for a group of adventurers to happen across a similar situation in Traveller I suppose.
A year or so later, I spent one summer working at a bank, and while there I ended up helping out taking some reposessed cars and trucks to a car wash to get them ready for an auction. One of the vehicles was a Chevy S-10 pickup, which had just come out around that time, and they were fairly popular, but this one had been modified into a work truck for a plumber or electrician, with its bed replaced by a workshop & lockers type arrangement. Although alot of people stopped by during the day to get a look at the vehicles that would be auctioned off, and initially alot of them had expressed interest in the truck, based on the description in the newspaper, once they saw how modified it was, most of them lost interest.
As such, a thought that comes to mind would perhaps have your adventurers come across a repossed vessel that has been altered/modified enough such that there is little demand for it, and they end up picking it up cheaply. Perhaps it could be a merchant ship that had been gutted by someone who had a contract to haul garbage or something, and now its usable but needs alot of work to convert it back to more normal operations.
Later in life, while working as a naval architect, at one company I worked for, we got a job to do some analysis on mostly finished motor yacht some guy had picked up cheap from a boat yard, because the original owner that the vessel was being built for defaulted on his loan (or somehting like that) and if I am understanding correctly the yard just wanted more or less to get it out of their yard so that they could clear the ways for more profitable work. As such I think the new owner picked it up in a not fully complete state fairly cheap. One thing we were tasked to look into was the impact on speed and powering of fitting some engines that the new owner was able to procure from somewhere, so it may have been that the hull may not have had its original engines installed. I suppose something like that may also be a possiblity in Traveller, where the adventurers end up having to scour scrap yards etc, for engines to fit to a mostly empty hull they get for cheap.
Other ideas perhaps could center around having a wealthy patron who picked up a ship cheap, hiring the adventurers to crew it as a speculative trader or something along those lines, and having to just give him a hefty cut of the profits for his role as a silent partner in the operation of it.
Anyway, just some thoughts.
Regards
PF
Hi,
Many years ago, in real life, I did an internship type couple of months onboard a small tanker off the US west coast. According to the crew the ship had been bought by their company a year or two earlier to replace a ship that their company had lost in a grounding. Anyway, according to the crew, this replacement ship (which was about 30yrs old at the time) had been sitting idle somewhere for a few years and was bought by their company for scrap yard prices but was in good enough shape to bring back into service to replace their loss. As such, it may be possible for a group of adventurers to happen across a similar situation in Traveller I suppose.
A year or so later, I spent one summer working at a bank, and while there I ended up helping out taking some reposessed cars and trucks to a car wash to get them ready for an auction. One of the vehicles was a Chevy S-10 pickup, which had just come out around that time, and they were fairly popular, but this one had been modified into a work truck for a plumber or electrician, with its bed replaced by a workshop & lockers type arrangement. Although alot of people stopped by during the day to get a look at the vehicles that would be auctioned off, and initially alot of them had expressed interest in the truck, based on the description in the newspaper, once they saw how modified it was, most of them lost interest.
As such, a thought that comes to mind would perhaps have your adventurers come across a repossed vessel that has been altered/modified enough such that there is little demand for it, and they end up picking it up cheaply. Perhaps it could be a merchant ship that had been gutted by someone who had a contract to haul garbage or something, and now its usable but needs alot of work to convert it back to more normal operations.
Later in life, while working as a naval architect, at one company I worked for, we got a job to do some analysis on mostly finished motor yacht some guy had picked up cheap from a boat yard, because the original owner that the vessel was being built for defaulted on his loan (or somehting like that) and if I am understanding correctly the yard just wanted more or less to get it out of their yard so that they could clear the ways for more profitable work. As such I think the new owner picked it up in a not fully complete state fairly cheap. One thing we were tasked to look into was the impact on speed and powering of fitting some engines that the new owner was able to procure from somewhere, so it may have been that the hull may not have had its original engines installed. I suppose something like that may also be a possiblity in Traveller, where the adventurers end up having to scour scrap yards etc, for engines to fit to a mostly empty hull they get for cheap.
Other ideas perhaps could center around having a wealthy patron who picked up a ship cheap, hiring the adventurers to crew it as a speculative trader or something along those lines, and having to just give him a hefty cut of the profits for his role as a silent partner in the operation of it.
Anyway, just some thoughts.
Regards
PF
picking up a damaged ship is a good way to go. the scout service will have yards that store damaged scout ships of various types that the service may not have the personnel to fix up. or some type A lands too hard at a class D port - too damaged to fly, no facilities to fix it, the original crew are mostly dead or are enjoying the local drug culture too much or have converted to some back-to-basics religion. or some lone ship owner up and dies, and the primitive natives don't know what to do with the boat and couldn't do anything with it even if they did know, and they're willing to let you have it for a price - glass beads, kill the local monster, something.
Icosahedron
SOC-14 1K
Hmm, the relatives of the dead loner might have something to say about that - after all, the natives don't have title to the ship to sell it. Of course, that could just add to the fun...
I like the interstellar garbage truck - would a small cluster of worlds have a governmental collaboration on an empty hex 'spacefill' site? or maybe a landfill/processing plant on a minor planet?
I like the interstellar garbage truck - would a small cluster of worlds have a governmental collaboration on an empty hex 'spacefill' site? or maybe a landfill/processing plant on a minor planet?
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
Maybe it was a 400t. yacht converted to a mining ship on "Monster Shipyard"... and no one will take it off the producers' hands now that the show has stopped production.
G. Fieendish
SOC-12
One logical extension, of the damaged/repossessed ship idea that I briefly considered flinging at my players at the time, was that the players bought a 1200 ton freighter at a starport auction, really cheap....
The reason for it's low cost, it was a K'Kree vessel, from a Challenge Magazine, with a cargo capacity of 50 tons, due to K'Kree design philosiphy, not the several hundred tons capacity that they expected....
Coupled with the costs of disposing of the K'Kree genetically altered grass used for sanitation, installing pressure bulkheads (it was basically 1 large open space), translating K'Kree displays into Galanglic, & other headaches, this would have drained their bank accounts....
The reason for it's low cost, it was a K'Kree vessel, from a Challenge Magazine, with a cargo capacity of 50 tons, due to K'Kree design philosiphy, not the several hundred tons capacity that they expected....
Coupled with the costs of disposing of the K'Kree genetically altered grass used for sanitation, installing pressure bulkheads (it was basically 1 large open space), translating K'Kree displays into Galanglic, & other headaches, this would have drained their bank accounts....
I'd like to thank the OP here for giving me an idea which sprung into being as I was thinking on his question.
Basically I came up with the idea of a very metal rich planet with a borderline habitable biosphere that made living in at least semi climate and atmosphere controlled dwellings mandatory.
The first habitats were old ships bought up to carry the initial colonists and then landed and used as dwellings for the first few years. Afterwards the colonists had made enough $ from metal exports to buy much nicer homes, and given the abundance of metals had not bothered to recycle the ships and had just left them to become a slum known as "shiptown", sometimes with the "p" left out...
Now the players want a ship, so if they can find a serviceable hull and scrounge up the parts, they may get one. Of course this may involve evicting some vagrants or buying them out.
Whether the players decide to try putting together a ship or not, the idea of "shiptown", maybe with an old broadsword as the capital, is an interesting idea and I'm grateful to the OP for inspiring me to come up with it.
Basically I came up with the idea of a very metal rich planet with a borderline habitable biosphere that made living in at least semi climate and atmosphere controlled dwellings mandatory.
The first habitats were old ships bought up to carry the initial colonists and then landed and used as dwellings for the first few years. Afterwards the colonists had made enough $ from metal exports to buy much nicer homes, and given the abundance of metals had not bothered to recycle the ships and had just left them to become a slum known as "shiptown", sometimes with the "p" left out...
Now the players want a ship, so if they can find a serviceable hull and scrounge up the parts, they may get one. Of course this may involve evicting some vagrants or buying them out.
Whether the players decide to try putting together a ship or not, the idea of "shiptown", maybe with an old broadsword as the capital, is an interesting idea and I'm grateful to the OP for inspiring me to come up with it.
Maybe it was a 400t. yacht converted to a mining ship on "Monster Shipyard"... and no one will take it off the producers' hands now that the show has stopped production.
Now you're just being ridiculous....
Well the OP gave me the idea for a game too:
The game is based around the idea that there was a group of industrialists who predicted the coming of an apocalyptic virus, and began to create a plan for an Imperial emergency operations and reconstruction infrastructure that would survive. A number of volunteers were cryogenically frozen in automated low births, hidden in asteroid bunkers ("boltholes") throughout the Imperium. They were provided with redundant caches of supplies, equipment, and starships, intended to help the teams rebuild civilization.
8P
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Ganidirsii O'Flynn
SOC-12
In the last campaign I played in with FatherFletch, we used the G:T rules. After haggling and bargaining for hours over how-many-points-this-ship-was, he sort of put his foot down and did something fairly unconventional.
First off, after some discussion we all realized that a Traveller starship is really nothing more than a fast horse, a teleport spell or a bigger gun in any other game. Chiefly, its a plot device to move the adventure/campaign forward. It can be used to modivate players to action by it's presence or absence (or threat of absence), but mostly it's a just a mode of transport. Since the plot of our campaign wasn't another episode of 'Aliens and Accountants', we were provided a ship by our patron and the campaign proceeded. This saved us from getting caught up in a traders or pirate hunter campaign when we were in an espionage/intrigue game.
Secondly, it also reduced some of the arbitrary controls that players use to hijack campaigns, like jumping away from the consequences of their actions. Because the ship was a plot device, the ownership of the vessel was a carrot and the loss of her was a stick. Also some ship issues became plot points as well. Like a 25 parsec, 12-day misjump that took us halfway across the sector...
I guess what I'm saying is that a starship is, and should be, something for the referee to give or withhold depending on the needs of his campaign. This doesn't mean that players can ignore the ship or it's operating costs, but they shouldn't be so tied to their ships that they never leave startown, either.
First off, after some discussion we all realized that a Traveller starship is really nothing more than a fast horse, a teleport spell or a bigger gun in any other game. Chiefly, its a plot device to move the adventure/campaign forward. It can be used to modivate players to action by it's presence or absence (or threat of absence), but mostly it's a just a mode of transport. Since the plot of our campaign wasn't another episode of 'Aliens and Accountants', we were provided a ship by our patron and the campaign proceeded. This saved us from getting caught up in a traders or pirate hunter campaign when we were in an espionage/intrigue game.
Secondly, it also reduced some of the arbitrary controls that players use to hijack campaigns, like jumping away from the consequences of their actions. Because the ship was a plot device, the ownership of the vessel was a carrot and the loss of her was a stick. Also some ship issues became plot points as well. Like a 25 parsec, 12-day misjump that took us halfway across the sector...
I guess what I'm saying is that a starship is, and should be, something for the referee to give or withhold depending on the needs of his campaign. This doesn't mean that players can ignore the ship or it's operating costs, but they shouldn't be so tied to their ships that they never leave startown, either.
