I'm a referee again!

[boomslang]

...with the unusable remains of several million paper Imperial credits.

and a couple of dtons of non-perishable, not-listed-on-the-manifest, easily-liquidated speculative cargo in her hold... goods that the lone survivor seems curiously content -- eager, even -- to let the PCs help themselves to as "reward" for their trouble...

 

[PathfinderAP]

And if you can't, don't get caught!

Or learn to run really fast,

 

[robject]

and a couple of dtons of non-perishable, not-listed-on-the-manifest, easily-liquidated speculative cargo in her hold... goods that the lone survivor seems curiously content -- eager, even -- to let the PCs help themselves to as "reward" for their trouble...

...thus setting up a future adventure when records of the sale filter through the market, someone finds out about it, and the otherwise-lucrative deal comes back to bite the players...

 

[E.D.Quibell]

You might want to fill in the back story a little.

Why would the sole survivor stay in place for 5 years? What's keeping him/her there and why didn't he/she do the oposit of what the players did to find him/her in order to escape?

Also the IISS don't have to re-active the scouts, they could just give them a job to do while they are on detached duty looking for work. Brigning in the third (NPC) is just as easy, as another detached duty scout who could be of use.

The ultimate reward being the Serpent Class Scout in detached duty mode if it's posible to salvage.

 

[robject]

You might want to fill in the back story a little.

Don't worry, that's the easy part.

Good point about not having to re-activate them.

I figure the shipwreck will not be salvageable.

I'll update my synopsis up top, on the first post.

 

[fiat_knox]

Hmm. Depends on your group. I've had a couple of groups these wouldn't work on...

One of my groups would have started yawning two minutes into this and decided to turn a healthy profit by converting the enterprise into an organ-legging shop...

...and with this one, they'd have walked away into the night, whistling a casual tune and then gone for a beer. "We ain't lookin for that sorta trouble - let some f***er else sort it out."

I'd have hated trying to Referee a group of easily-bored housecats like that. Me, I'd either give up on them and steer them towards a miniatures game because that's all they'd be good for, or I'd find some way of keeping their attention focused on the game, without having to go all "Damn, a Zhodani warfleet just Jumped into space in front of and behind you! They're training their guns on your ship! What do you do?"

With the medical one:- The thing is, the characters get to fly a ship. Most Traveller characters would jump at the chance to get to fly a ship, rather than be just passengers. And they don't have to worry about making up the month's mortgage payments, either.

Wherever they are, that's where the adventure will find them. While the medics are setting up their little mobile surgery and the patients are flocking in, the characters can be hitting the Downport bar looking for a job or a small cargo they can smuggle, for a price.

Or they might land on a world ruled by a caste system, and the ruling caste might resent the medics coming along and offering free treatment to the "untouchable" caste at the foot of the ladder. "Imagine! The children of entertainers and leather workers healthier than our own kids! Outrageous!" So the characters might end their adventure there fighting a running battle to keep their charges alive while outraged ruling caste-hired mercs chase them down all the way to the landing berth.

And as for the other thing, the auction that turns into Cloverfield, the answer is ridiculously easy. The Law suddenly seems to materialise out of the shadows, pin down the characters, and then give them one chance to live. Track down that beastie, and kill it, before it - or the Law - kills them. And then put explosive collars around their necks to make sure they stick to the plan.

(If nothing else, they could let the beastie swallow one or more of them and detonate the explosive inside its gullet to kill it. I'm just saying ...)

Boredom is no excuse for players. Nobody forces them to come roleplaying.

 

[Icosahedron]

<Grin> As you say, adventure always seems to find adventurers, and you can always turn these things around, but the ideal is to set up a hook that your players will jump at, and some of my players just wouldn't jump at that bait, that's all.

 

[robject]

I'm currently cooking up details for Regina's Luck Gibson starport and associated Startown. A few key shops, ranging from scroungy to swanky. I need to detail out some more places to feed them as they travel to other worlds, other continents, etc. Any suggestions?

 

[rancke]

I'm currently cooking up details for Regina's Luck Gibson starport and associated Startown. A few key shops, ranging from scroungy to swanky. I need to detail out some more places to feed them as they travel to other worlds, other continents, etc. Any suggestions?

FYI (and FWIW), here's the library data entry I made up for Luck Gibson. It's not canonical (but I hope it will be one day ).

Luck Gibson Starport: Secondary starport on Regina, located in the continent of Feni, near the provincial capital of Kingsbury. Named after L. Gibson, 3rd Century explorer, pioneer, and colonist.​

Kingsbury is canonical; it appears on the map of Regina from WBH and it does have a starport symbol next to it, although none of the starports are named. According to my die rolls, it's the second largest city on Regina with a population of 76 millions.

As for the other continents, I have a fairly detailed map of Imsu along with considerable historical detail. Also a partially finished map of Madzaki and assorted historical tidbits about other places on Regina. Let me know if any of that has any interest.


Hans

 

[robject]

We rolled up characters.

Two Scouts, one with a focus in archaeology. That gave me the hook I needed to plan out some jobs for them: the Scouts + archaeology = fun.

re Luck Gibson. One of them is "buying" equipment, which gave me just what I needed to start sketching out some shops:

Shop #1 - The Second Hand

Wrist Watch-10, adjusts automatically where geosats available. Solar battery, works for ten years without replacement. Finest in Regina Startown. See the nice flex-wristband? And the retro LCD digital display screams "GQ"! Not waterpoof. Make me an offer!

"Not waterproof, huh? Very nice but I'm looking for a spacer's timepiece. The geosat synchronization and solar battery features I want to keep but it's gotta be able to sync up with ship-board time and be water-resistant down to 50m and 6 atmos. Also vacuum-resistant, easily readable at night and able to take a beating during field work on planets not as friendly as this one, both in salt water and out of it.

Say, a blackened non-magnetic tungsten-ceramo-alloy dust-proof casing with a NoScratch(tm) pressure-differential-resistant pseudohesalite crystal, anti-shock construction, at least 3 simultaneous digital displays for tracking different planetary time zones, multiple alarm settings with manually-selectable audio and vibration alerts, and count-down timer and time-elapsed functions. I'll also want the strap to be a SureComfort(tm) locking flexband, milspec-rated for hazardous environments and with a crystal-protecting SelfSeal(tm) flap cover.

You know, something like what a Scout Service survey team member, _like_me_, would really use."

*friendly smile*

"Oh, and digital compass, temperature, and barometric functions as well would make me feel all warm and fuzzy with a tendency to ignore price for the moment."

"So..whatcha got?"

Shop #2 - Meson Shack

Ah, a portable computer. I see you're looking at the TSR-5000 FlexTek with the immutable, retro OLED display. Very affordable, very efficient. A steal at Cr2,000.

"Wow. It would be a steal IF it included voice control and response? Here's a list of translator, database, and reference software I need included."

Shop #3 - The Grand Vizier

VE Goggles. Very handy indeed for the discriminating hunter-explorer. This batch is just in from General Outdoorsman. Yes, and only Cr2,400!

"Exactly what I had in mind. Done."

Shop #4 - Lesler-Khalan military surplus outlet

Weapons shop: carries such nice equipment as laser carbines, heavy ACRs, etc.

Looking for an energy weapon? How about our Laser Carbine-12? Has a decent range, weighs a lowly 3.25 kilograms, and a decent burden rating for a longarm, all for Cr2,800.

Code : ModLC-12
Name : Mod Laser Carbine-12
Range : 4
Mass : 3.24
Burden: 1
Damage: (6D) Burn-4 Pen-2
Cost : 2,800

"Nice to find someone else who knows their weapons. Let's get started on whatever datawork I need to keep law enforcement happy and get to looking at accessories which may be useful."

 

[Icosahedron]

Datawork - I like it, consider that one stolen.

 

[PathfinderAP]

Looking for an energy weapon? How about our Laser Carbine-12? Has a decent range, weighs a lowly 3.25 kilograms, and a decent burden rating for a longarm, all for Cr2,800.

Code : ModLC-12
Name : Mod Laser Carbine-12
Range : 4
Mass : 3.24
Burden: 1
Damage: (6D) Burn-4 Pen-2
Cost : 2,800

So thats what T5 looks like, sorta T4-ish uh?